The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1905-02-05
COTTON ACREAGE.

Your holding of cotton will dc nc
good, in fact, much harm, if you do moi
reduce your acreage from 20 to 80 per
cent"
. The Atlanta Constitution says: AL
though to any intelligent farmer who
will ponder the situation at all, the fore
going may be accepted as going without
saying, it is, nevertheless, necessary to
stress this obvious fact and make it the
guiding motto of every cotton grower
who plants a pound Of seed this spring.
No acreage reduction means a market
reduction, no matter how deterrninedly
the farmers hold the 1904 "overplus" of
cotton Even normal crop of cotton
next season as the result of normal
acreage and growing conditions would
mean scent cotton or less. The only
way in the world to make cotton ad-
vance and realize the farmers hope of
a Io-cent minimum is to r1akeassurance
doubly sure that an. abnornally small
cotton crop will be grown in the South
next summer by planting at least IS per
cent less land to cotton than was planted
last spring.
To accomplish this difficult and i'm
speratively necessary procedure, every
farmer must regard the matter as work
ing out his own individual salvation and
.conscientiously limit his planting to that
extent Don't wait to see if your
neighbor is ...toting fair on his part of
the common contract, but :'tote fair"
yourself and trust to moral suasion to
put the feet Of others in the track of
right. A great point of honor is in
volved in this matter, and in the face of
the grave situation an dthe self-interest
involved, it is difficult to believe that
there are Southern farmers capable of
proving recreant to the trust reposed in
them by their fellow cotton growers.
The holding movement of the past two
months has demonstrated how well the
cotton farmers will stand together as a
common impulse Of self-preservation,
for during that time there has been only
partial local organization Understand /
ing, as they must, that to continue to |
hold their cotton without short planting
for the next crop will avail henl moth
ing, we have every confidence in their
fulfilling the entire programme to the
etter especially since their organization
S now SO complete and will exercise
such great vigilance to see that every
PLANTER is made to understand the full
significance Of IS per cent acreage re-
iuction.
The success OF the whole movement /
hinges right here, as our South Carolina
has pointed out. The
moment it is known definitely and be-
'ond gainsaying that the cotton acreage
i the South has been reduced IS per
ent. that moment the price Of the feecy
taple will begin to climb the scale. 1t
viii not be necessary to await the me-
geological Developments of the grow
ng season or the development of the
insect ravages. The cardinal point is in
he acreage and the reduced consump-
ion of fertilizer Just as soon as the
nai,cial world is convinced that the
otton crop is to be short through under
lanting, the bull movement will begin, !
nd i will proceed to the logical con-
lusion of the movement. namely. the 8
I'LL intrinsic, honest value Of the staple
$ regulated BY the law Of supply and
eflaand. IS
Every cotton grower in the South
lust be made to fully understand this s
ital fact, and once understanding it,
aere is extremely small likelihood that
aere will be slip in the acreage re- 2
uction programme.