The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1904-01-16
FARMERANDP PLANTER
PERMANENT COTTON FAMINE.
Reply TO the Question ms TO the DAN
e of Permanent Cotton
Famine in the south.


of the southern states?
1t is claimed that through the exist
ence of the conditions which now ap-
pear there is danger of a steady de-
iciency in our cotton supply for the
following reasons:
First-That there is a gradual de-
terioration of the seed, due to the SELL
iEg of the best seed to the cotton oil
mills.
Second-That the tenantry system
has lessened the fertility Of the soil.
Third-That there can be no large
increase without Il material gain in
population, as the industrial develop
ment of the south has drawn many
hands from the cotton fields to rail-
road, mining and kindred work.
Added to these is the boil weevil,
which is conceded to be a serious men
ace, but which can be left out of con-
sheraton, because it has not been in
existence long enough to produce any
serious effect upon the general yield,
and therefore the matters stated above
will only be noticed. In order to have
a clear understanding of the situation,
the Record has gone deeply into sta
~tistics, printing returns of the acreage
planted; the r produced in pounds
and bales, the weight OF bales and the
product in pounds and bales per acre
for each year from and commencing
with the crop Of 1S71-72, and ending
with and including the crop of l9O2-O3,
Taking periods of three consecutive
years through tho whole time men
toned above, so as to get a fair av-
erage of the production per acre, the
Record finds that there were no ma
terial changes in the yield which would
indicate any permanent increase or
decrease in the productivity Of the soil.
The average yields for three-year peri
nds during that time iluctuated be-
tween 1911 pounds per acre and l5S
pounds; but beginning with the three
year period from 1928 to 1894-95,
when the average was 1875 pounds per
acre, or more than the average for any
similar period during the preceding
2l years, there was a very marked In
crease in the yield Fer acre, reaching
2l3 pounds in the three-year period
1896 to 1898, So far above any
yield prior to that period, except for a
single year since iS7l-72, that it stands
out alone as a period of phenomenal
! reduction per acre, The next three
year period showed a small decrease,
hut was still much higher than in any
preceding three-year period since 1871
Y. For the two years ending with
1929 the average was 1888 pounds,
a further decline, but still above the
average for the q years from 1S71-72
to 1882. The high averages of pro-
duction between the years 1892 and
1889 are attributed by the statistician
of The Record to the extensive open
ing III Of new and rich cotton lands In
Texas, indian territory and Oklahoma
in tina. period.
There does not appear to be any
failure in the soil that can not be rene
died by a proper system of fertili2ing.
Moreover, there are great bodies of vir-
gin lands adapted to cotton, that have
never had a hoe, much less a pillow
driven into them. But there is a de-
flciency of labor, caused partly by the
emigration of the negroes from the
plantations to the towns and cities;
partly by the withdrawal of negro la
Dor from agriculture to works Of pub
lie development, and partly by the mi
grafton of the negroes to northern
states. The needed labor mast be Sc
cured from some source, and up to the
present time the best farm labor that
has been obtainable to replace the ne
groes is supplied by Italian immigra-
ton. Those people have come into the
south in the past few years in consid-
cradle numbers, probably a million of
them can be expected in the next few
years. They are generally peaceful
and industrious, and in the second gen
Grafton they become fully American
lied
AS to the seed, that is something that
must be carefully determined. 1t is
possible to get good seed, and the best
should be reserved for planting. All
the technical questions should be de-
termined by scientific research, while
all the practical problems must have
the attention OF our most intelligent
men. and where legislation is neces-
sary, it should be forthcoming. AS the
Record well says: THE welfare of the
whole country, the vast foreign com
merce based on cotton, the enormous
cotton-manufacturing interests OF
America and Europe are at stake. II
there is no danger, the world needs TO
know It beyond the possibility of any
error; If there is danger, then no sum,
whether it be one million or one hun
dred million, is too large for the ma
tional government to spend in over
coming 1t
The Record declares that the south
ern states of the Union must get ready
to raise an average of 100000 to 49,
O0O. 900 bales of cotton a year within
the next five or ten years, since the
growing consumptive requirements OF
the world absolutely demand an in
crease in cotton production as large at
that. The population of the globe is
steadily increasing in the absence of
destructive epidemics of disease that
once decimated its Inhabitants periodi-
cally, while the spread of civilization
savage and barbarous peoples
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