The Tupelo journal., 1905-08-18
FARMER NDPLANTER.
THE OUTLOOK FOR COTTON.
yI,e Crop VIII Not Exceed Ten MILL
ion Bales, and Farmers Have
Only to Market Right.

OnIy to Market Right.
10 the Farmers Of North Carolina,
and Especially the Alliance Brethren
l wish to give<the cotton situation as
it presents itself to-day as being the
most favorable for high price cotton
that has presented itself in twenty
years. To commence with was he
year 1903 with no surplus cotton
ahead, 1904 crop was 13,5S4,457, OF
which we will consume by September
l about II, SOC, 900 bales, leaving about
1,000, 900 bales to start business OF Sep
Der /, 1905, and then taking the pros
pect of the crop of 1905 not being over
a nine million bale crop, and taken ac-
cording to acreage and condition up to
last report, you can only figure a crop
of 1897, 756. To that you add 1000, 900.
You then have only 9,997, 556, about
two and a half million short from the
consumption of 1905 to go over to 1906,
not saying a word about the peace
prospect or extension of our cotton
trade.
Now to take any more cotton h
above figures WI should have to make
more per acre than five years av-
erage, which now looks to be impossi-
BILE as our crop report is now below
the average. (See the crop report OF
1900 to 1909 We have the shortest
acreage this year and the lowest re-
port, except one, in the five years.
In 1903 our acreage was 28,014, $50,
and we made 9,851,129 which brought
us $500, SAG, 230.82, and the crop OF 1904
we had 30,453, 900 acres, and made 49,
8 4,457 bales that brought us SCAT, 4O5,-
534.51.
Notwithstanding the crop of 1903
was less than hat of 1904 by 3,491,3S6
bales, yet it brought us less money by
$13, 143, 697.3 Notwithstanding we paid
out for labor alone to raise the crop
of 1904 more han we did 1903 crop by
1884 $50. You see a small crop pays
us much better, and small acreage is
the key to the cotton situation. The
acreage for 1905 is about 26,779,O38, the
smallest that has been in the last five
years, and with the average for i've
years multiplied with the acreage OF
1905, it makes a crop of about nine
million bales. Figure from any stand
you please and you can't figure over a
ten million bale crop, and it can be
figured as low as eight million for 1905
with believable figures.
So, you see with intelligent market
ing your crop, we may expect a good
price, and the thing to do when cotton
drops below ten cents is to stop right
off selling your cotton; and not insist
on cotton going I'VE 12h cents for
high prices are just as destructive TO
our good as low prices. Don't THINK
that since we have been successful in
forcing the price up mi time to living
prices that we can do anything we
wish to. You must remember that there
are other places than can raise cotton
besides the states of the south.
But you need not fear competition
anywhere as long as cotton stays be-
low 1917 cents. There is nothing IN
der the sun you can clothe man with
as cheap as you can with cotton at
1917 cents. For instance, take a suit OF
cotton goods worth ten dollars, put
them on the scales and weigh them,
and they won't weigh ten pounds. So,
you see that the producer of the raw
material only gets n dollar OF that
money when he gets ten cents per
pound for his cotton. You take your
hat that you wear every day on your
head and it costs you 81. Weigh it and
it won't weigh five ounces; so you see
the farmer only gets two and a half
cents for the raw material for his hat,
and perhaps he might have been the
very man who raised that cotton and
sold it for .021a and brought it back
in the shape of a hat for So; so you
see there is a great margin between
the farmer and manufacturer, though
it is important that we should not
cripple our home manufactures. We
should ali work tremendously together
and get a good living out of our labors
and our products and equally divide
the profit. Then America can man
facture hei own cotton to a finish and
send her finished goods to the foreign
countries instead Of her raw material.
Cotton will be the king of Europe
and the south the queen of the
try. So brother Alliancemen take fresh
courage. This can only come by CT
g~anization of the wise heads of the
south; then by all means get our forces
in good shape, and then farming in the
south for nothing but the pleasure of
Europe will be a day of the past.
Market your cotton as long as it
stays from ten to twelve and ahalf,
but just as soon as it gets below ten
cents stop right off and positively re-
fuse to sell until some one will see fit
to give you ten cents, which will al
ways come if it can't be bought for
less.
If you are not a member of some
farmers organization, go at once and
join the Farmers Alliance or Cotton
Growers association and get ready for
the battle and make the south prosper
Gus and the people will be happy.
Your servant,
w. X. CULBRETH.
Robson Co., N. G.