Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-11
UNCLE SANS COTTON
This Years Crop Will Be Six
Billion Pounds.
CLOTHE THE WORLD
NEW DISCOVERIES BY THE
AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT.
no Increase the Output - Our Export
Trade-The Factories of
the South.
Written for The Evening Star.


Copyright. 1908. by Frank G.. CarpenterD
We raised enough cotton last year to
make a suit of clothes for every man. wo-
man and child upon earth The crop Is es-
timated at twelve million bales. or. in other
words. at six billion pounds. 1t will bring
TO the south S45O.OO,O0O. More than $500,
COO,OoO worth of it will go across the water,
and its value will return in hard gold dol
lars to Uncle Sans pockets. The balance
will be used in our own factories north
and south. We have now more than l.ouO
cotton mills. which annually eat up about
two billion pounds of raw cotton. Tney
employ hundreds of thousands of hands,
and make a product which sells for more
than $1,000 coo per annum.
This gives some idea of what cotton
means to the United States. 1t is one of
our king crops and the great money crop
of the south. If it can be increased the
whole country will be richer. If it falls on
we that much the poorer Within the
past few years the Agricultural Depart
ment has had it's scientists studying cotton
Il has established experimental farms in
different parts of the south. 1t has the
best of the farmers making experiments of
their own in some sections. and as a result
1T has made discoveries whereby it is said
that the product can be increased fully 30
per cent. without any additional expense
Uncle Sam, Money Maker.
Unc,e Sam is now playing patriarch. He
is taking more care of his children than
ever before. Through the great govern
ment departments he is teaching them how
TO save and invest their money. A great
work of this kind is being done by the
Agricultural Department. and that espe-
Cially in the line of cotton raising. l had
talk today with DIR. b. T. Galloway, who
has spent years in the southern states
studying cotton and the possibility of in
creasing that crop by better methods of
cultivation. DR.. Galloway is the chief of
the bureau of plant industry and all his
work is done for the government. Said he:
The United States will ALWAYS be the
chief cotton country of the world Our
climate and soil just fitted for cotton.
and we have recently invented labor-saving
machinery which will enable US to hold
this industry against any nation on earth
As it is. the crop is steadily growing. Until
the civil war we had never raised more
than four and one-half million bales. In
1898 we produced more than twice that
amount. and our reports from the south
now show that shall have more than
twelve million bales this year. All the cot
ton raised by the world does not figure up
more than fifteen million bales, so that
three fourths of all the cotton used by man
IS now raised here"
Increasing Our Cotton.
What Is the department doing along such
3ines?' l asked.
1T is giving the planters of the south OBJ
3ect lessons. II is showing them how to fer
tiize and cultivate. 1t is making expert
ments in seed selecting. and it is breeding
better seed every year. We have experi-
ment stations in all the cotton states and
we have already made an enormous differ
snce in the amount of cotton grown. The
chief trouble with. southern farmers is that
they are one-crop farmers. They work the
soil with one crop until it is worn out and
at present the average yield of cotton
throughout the cotton belt is only 100 pounds
to the acre. At the same time, in the same
region, some farmers are getting as much
as 800 to 800 pounds per acre, which at a.
value of cents a pound means an increased
profit of from $21 to $54 per acre over their
immediate neighbors. This comes from Gull
tivating the land properly and sowing the
right seed
How One Man Made $1,000.
II have just received letter from Ter
rell, Tex" continued DR.. Galloway which
shows what can be done by proper cultiva-
tion. The cotton product of that region has
been steadily decreasing, owing to the lack
Of fertilization and the boil weevi To show
what might be done by better farming the