The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1905-05-10
COTTON WON'T DO.
Experiment Tried but IL viii moi
Work,

"Vbhs
The following letter was published in
the News and Courier of May 9Th:
Columbia May 8, 1905.
August Kohn, Manager News and
Courier Bureau, Columbia, S. C.-Dear
SIR: For the benefit of the farmers of
the South, and for those manufacturers
VINO have not had the following %
renee, L deem it my duty to submit
what has been done by me in the past
for the good of all.
Back in the years of five cent cotton
was then local manager of the South
ern Cotton Oil Company in this city,
and determined to see what / could do
towards using cotton bags in the place
OF dundee or burIap bags for sackinp
cotton seed meal, which as you know is
put up in lO0-pound bags. On the basis
OF live cent cotton these bags cost me
about one-half to th~ree-ouarters of =
cent more than the dundee or burlap
bags did at that time, but | believed
that II L could demonstrate cotton bags
TO be a success they would be worth the
oiiterence on count of the prettierl
package they would make. saw no
reason why it should not be a practical
success, as L knew that wheat flour had
always been so sacked. | was careful
however, to get eve a stronger grade
OF cloth for these bags than is gener-
any used for flour bags, and | was so
sure that it would prove apractical sue
cess that | ordered some 80, 900 from
the Royal Bag Factory of Charleston,
Mr.. George Waganer's factory. to
make my first filling and shipping from.
The result of this experiment was a.
failure and still have on hand at this
point a large volume of these bags.
me first practical drawback to this
Experiment was the fact that the IL
handling -four for the railroad
we're accustomed to handling it gently /
because of its character. Cotton seed l
neal did not have the same respect and
reatment in handling. 9
h second was that / tried to work c
hese bags off from year to year on our I
ocal city and county trade at this a
'olnt, but they, for the same reason. n
the packages-the bags had U
OF strength enough to them. n
10 make a bag of sufficient strength q
Ut OF cotton to stand the strain de- p
landed by the trade, with the present II
rice OF cotton, would cost, | an salts
ed on the average to-day twice as J'
luch as the present market value of a
lndee or burlap bags. The average a
ISL OF dundee or burlap bags per ton of u
seed meal is one dollar; to use d.
'tton bags then would add the addi- NJ
cost of one dollar per ton to the 81
'st OF the meal to the consumer. al
'ould he be willing to pay this, and if SC
were willing, would it be a practical d,
opposition for him to do it? Such cot tf
n bags, if used for cotton seed meal. Je
ould have a subsequent value on the l
rm to the consumer, but in case thew Is
ere used for fertilizers they would =
I'VE no future value on account of the &c
aracter of the goods put into them. Is
Again, if the consumption of dundee oV
burlap bags was done away with by m
e oil mills and fertilizer factories.
e probable lack of demand for these m
gs would make them decline in price. -
d n make the extra cost of the pa
tton bags that much greater to the tic
and manufacturer - Tin
Won ,..rr -