The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1905-08-08
THE BIGGEST EXPORT PRODUCT
OF THE UNITED STATES.
COTTON CERTAINLY KING.
II Gives Employment to the Farmer,
the Finaneler, the statistieian,
the Transportation Companies,
Mill Hands and Imagination.

'e''sS aAd tVaHltldNt0H
Cotton is a theme that has been
talked considerably, but 1t Will stand
more. for. like the poor, 1t is n thing
that will lie always with the human
race. Cotton furnishes the staple
crop for the Southern United States.
It is the o extensive export crop
grown in the United States, which
probably means the most extensive
export crop grown anywhere in the
world. The cotton States of Amer.
lea produce FIVE out of six pounds
OF all the cotton raised on the earth.
The export of cotton exceeds the ex-
port OF grain and grain products by
30 per cent. Cotton ranks so promi.
neptly in the export trade that 1t con.
stitutes above a third of all the agri.
cultural products sent abroad.
The cotton exports bring to the
United States from abroad a million
dollars a day. That is one reason why
cotton will not soon be a thread bare
theme. The cotton industry of the
country employs u large population
of the South in the fields. 1t furn.
ishes with seed and seed products
several million tons of freight for the
railroads to handle. 1t pays in wage
two hundred million dollars to those
who work about the cotton mills and
factories. The sale and distribution
OF the manufactured product consti-
tutes n OF the leading and staple
lines of merchandising. Cotton is an
article of apparel wherever civilized
man wears clothes.
The future OF the cotton crop Is
the future of the race. AS men con-
tinue to expend their wants, those
wants will include cotton. 1t Is not
possible that the supply can be made
too great until every creature is com
fortably clad.
A cotton field is a thing of won-
derful interest. IL you consider all
that 1t signifies. So when John E.
Buchan, of Manly. asked me, the
other day, If I wanted to go with
him to Drowning Creek to see a field
of cotton in blossom, the answer is
easy to guess. Buchan is a clear.
headed Tar.heel Yankee, who fought
In the Confederate army when a
mere boy, and began to hustle for
himself soon after that lamentable
affair, and now has gathered fiocks
and herds by his hereditary Scotch
energy. The old stock came to this
country about the year 1749, when
the McNeals founded a colony for
the followers Of the Stuarts, who
were banished from Scotland when
the British arms were successful in
the overthrow Of the Pretender's
forces at Culloden. Buchan is a fair
specimen of the successful Southern
young fellow who has had to depend
on himself, and I cannot see much
difference between that class of peo-
pie North or South.
But to get back to the cotton field.
This is my land here" said Mr..
Buchan, as we turned from the road
out a private lane. ut is about a
mile and a half yet to the cotton
fields" and then, on asking, I found
that his place included about 1000
acres. Cotton is one of a series of
crops raised on the place, which Is
mostly in forest. A herd of nearly
a hundred cattle are grazed at one
time or another, some of the COWS
coming up to town to be sold, and
some of the beef stock coming away
occasionally at the right season to
the butcher.
Cotton, corn and cowpeas consti-
tute the chief crops. But the cot
ton fields were the part OF the farm
that caught my eye. Corn is not SO
much Of a novelty. Buchan's cotton
fields are good ones. His crop will
be above the average. But except
for being a little better than most Of
them, his field stands for all the rest
throughout the United States.
Imagine, therefore, that all of
New York, Pennsylvania and the
New England States were planted in
one gigantic field of cotton. That
would be about what is to be seen
to-day in the Cotton States of the
South. From Virginia to Texas is
one enormous flower garden, for the
cotton plant is a famous bIoomer.
Blossoms nearly as big as a holly
hook. half a dozen or so on a stalk,