The Monticellonian., 1906-12-20
FIVE MILLIONS A YEAR.
The Cost to Texas Farmers of an lm-
 prevalent Market System.

prevalent Market System.
 The recent drop in the price Of cot ton gives a fresh illustration of the folly of the present system of market ing the staple The writer has re- gently had occasion to make some in- vestigations which demonstrated that the estimates on the cotton cfop of Texas for the present season are all excessive. The world has been mis- lead by the market situation, which
 is phenomenal Not in thirty years has so largeAa proportion of the crop produced been brought into view this early as now This has been due to several causes. chiefly to the price which prevailed at the beginning of the season This enabled the grow rse to offer exceptionally good prices for picking and labor was tempted to the cotton patch from every quar- ter. The railroads of the State have thus lost more than half of their sec ton men. Building operations have been checked. Manufacturing enter prises have with difficulty been kept in motion Two months of uninter- rupted good weather supervened. when the staple was well opened. and the result of these several causes is that but little cotton is left in the field. Threefourths of the Texas crop has been gathered and either marketed or started on the way to market within eight weeks. To fi- nance this crop movement has called for resources of between $75,000.00O and $100,000,0 900 for Texas alone. For the entire South 1t has required some thing like s250,000,000. Of course. nothing like this stupendous amount has been available in actual cash, and all the instrumentalities of commerce and the counting house have been called into play to keep the wheels moving. Yet, notwithstanding the banks and the railroads have done their best to move the crop in re- sponse to the popular demand, the load has been too heavy even for their vast resources and energies. Congestion exists at every point. congresses. platforms and cars are gorged with cotton and rolling stock cannot be had to meet the shipping demands There could be but one re- suit from this extraordinary rush for the market. The price came tumb- ling down and the cnly wonder is that it did not fall much lower.
 President Calvin aLd his associates of the Farmers Union have made ap- peal after appeal to the farmers 10 hold their cotton and have warned the public of the depression that would certainly follow unless the flow toward the markets were check ed No doubt their counsels were needed by many and these will reap the rewards of patience within two or three months after neighbors have sold out and the crop takes an up- ward turn at the instance of the spec uators who will by that time have fastened their clutches upon it.
 If one man raised the entire cotton cro pof the South he would reverse the present method of getting it to market and would feed it out slowly to the buyers, extending the period of active sales through the entire year. The buyer would never be as- sisted to bear the market by the exi- gencies of the seller. The price would represent natural conditions plus the effect of independence on the part of the grower To the farmers of Texas that course would mean a profit of at least 5000, 900 a year as compared with the inevitable result of present methods. The cotton farmer is pay ing dearly for his haste to get to market when the loss thereby sffered exceeds the total cost of running the State government-E. G. Senter. in i Southern Mercury.