The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1907-08-09
COTTON BAGGIMG
For Cotton Bales Mea!a Create 81
New Demand
For a Half Million Bales Of Cotton
a Year aud Use up Low Grade

a Year aud Use up Low Grade
Cotton.
The subject OF cotton-bale reform
continues to hold It's place among
the i've subjects Of co~tton-seIling
economy. The number OF articles
we have already printed on this re-
form cannot be better supplemented
this week than by giving our readers
the arguments in favor Of cotton bag
ging for cotton bales which appeared
IN a recent number Of the Cotton
Journal.
If the foreign spinners are salts
ned that cotton bagging can be safely
USED, provided the American bale is
properly compressed at the initial
point, hat is the local gin. f. does
seem to us that the cotton growers
should let no grass grow under their
teet In advocating the change from
jute to cotton.
The following weighty reasons are
given why the cotton covering should
ne adopted 8t the earliest possible
date:
If we could cover the cotton CROP
Oh the South with cotton bagging,
ana introduce the use Of cotton bags
In the place OF jute bags, as at pres
eht used In the South, we would
create an instantaneous new demand
Tor nearly half a million Of IL crop.
Flgur1ng Il consumption of ten thous-
and bales for each mill engaged In
the manufacture of the necessary ma
terial to supply this demand, it would
require the erection and equipment
OF fifty new mills in the South to en-
gage in an entire new industry.
II cotton bagging should be utiliZ-
| OF n no h1nnn Hf 4o 4
could be treated with chemicals,
which are already in use, to keep the
Dagglng from becoming widowed
when exposed to the weather, so as to
preserve the marks and numbers, and
also to make the bagging fire proof.
The cloth to be made for bagging
should weigh fourteen ounces to the
yard, and be strickly uniform in
width and length, SO as to make the
itare on each bale the same.
Another very important feature in
connection with the adoption and use
or cotton bagging is, that there would
be an immediate demand for all the
very low-grade cotton from each crop.
when Is now being used to tender
on contracts in the big exchanges to
depress prices of the higher, spinna-
bic grades. Cotton bagging and cot
ton bags for commercial fertilizers
would solve the problem of proftably
disposing of the very low grades each
season and keep such cotton from
being used as a hammer to depress
the cotton market. The spinners
contend that good cotton bagging can
be manufactured out Of these low
grades, and a satisfactory market
thereby established for them. We
must get out of the clutches Of tho
Jute Bagging Trust. The present
heavy, loosely-wOven jute which we
have been so many years using, has
proven a most costly burden to the
farmers, and is most Objectionable to
both the foreign cotton handlers and
SpinnerS of our cotton.
; We have been for years importing
jute fiber from the distant lands of
India, and paying enormous profits to
the jute trust to manufacture the
liDer into bagging as a covering for
our cotton. We have paid all the
freight and handling Of the material
from India to the South, and again
the freight on the bagging covering
each bale ffns 1.-The clubhouse. to. all
parts Of the world.
We have paid for the high-priced
5 bagging and the freight both ways
and never received one cent of our
money back. The bagging and ties
OH a bale Of cotton is now, and has
always been, an absolute net loss to
the farmer, although many of them
have been deluded into the false idea
that when they sold a bale of cotton
by the gross weight, they also got
pay for the bagging and ties at the
market price offered them for the
cotton.
/ But be not deceived by the meth
DDS employed by The cotton buyers.
! rho cninnnrc will toll un, hot thr,
, price for thirty pounds is always de-
Quoted from the gross weight of each
bale and added to all the other fixed
charges that come off from the spin
, ncrS price in order to make the mar
ket price for the stable sold on a
: gross weight basis. This is where
the deduction of six per cent for tarc
comes in.
If a farmer only puts twenty
pounds of a bagging and ties on a
bale, he OF course loses whatever he
pays for the bagging and ties, plus
the weight of the same 10th ways,
and also ten pounds OF his lint. Now
this old, primitive method OF doins
business should be abolished. We
can get rid OF it by encouraging the
adoption OF congresses at the local
gin that will compress II cotton into
a nice neat package, to the required
shipping density, and cover the bale
with cotton bagging. Under his
plan, we can at once arrange to have
our cotton bought and sold on the
actual net weight basis, as the tare
would be uniform and the 6 per cent
discount would cease to exist, and
that burden would be thrown off.
Besides all these enormous savings,
we would be using our own material
and developing new home Industries
in the South.
The introduction Of these
ic features is, of course, difficult, and
almost impossible with our present
heavy, cumbersome, loose bale, which
has to be r%e-packed before it can be
made ready for transportation
abroad. But the time is now ripe
for inaugurating the desired changes,
and foreign handlers and spinners
are extremely anxious to see these
reforms, as they have already been
applied to cotton balcd in other coun-
tries.