The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1907-08-07
COTTON BAGGlNG
For Cotton Bales Would Create a
New Demand
For Halt Million Bales Of Cotton
Year and Use up Low Grade
Cotton.

>rm cannot be better supplemented
lis week than by giving our readers
ne arguments in favor of cotton bag
ing for cotton bales which appeared
! q recent number of the Cotton
ournal.
If the foreign spinners are salts
ed that cotton bagging can be safely
sed, provided the American bale is
properly compressed at the initial
'oint, that is the local gin, it does
eem to US that the cotton growers
hould let no grass grow under their
eet in advocating the change from
ute to cotton. -:
The following weighty reasons are
given why the cotton covering should :
)e adopted at the earliest possible
late:
If We could cover the cotton crop
II the South with cotton bagging,
and introduce the use of cotton bags
IN the place Of jute bags, as at pres
ent used in the South, we would
create an instantaneous new demand
for nearly half million Of our crop.
Figuring a consumption of ten thous-
and bales for each, mill engaged in
the maufacture of the necessary MAJ
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.
If cotton bagging; should be utiliZ-:
ed in the place Of jute, the cloth
could be treated with chemicals
which are already in use, to keep the
bagging from becoming mildeweds
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
tare on each bale the same.
Another very important feature in
connection with the adoption and use
of cotton bagging is, that there would.
be an immediate demand for all the
very low-grade cotton from each crop.
which is new being used to tender
on contracts in the big exchanges to-
depress prices of the higher, spinna-s
BILE grades. Cotton bagging and cot
ton bags for commercial fertilizers
would solve the problem of prohtably
disposing of the very low grades each
season and keep such cotton from
being used as hammer to depresss
the cotton market. The spinners
contend that good cotton bagging can
be manufactured out of these low
grades, and satisfactory market
thereby established for them. We
must get out of the clutches OF the.
Jute Bagging Trust. The present:
heavy, loosely-woyen jute which we:
have been so many years using, has
proven most costly burden TO the
farmers, and is most ectionable 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
fiber into bagging as 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 from the gin-house to all
parts of the world. sS.SS
We have paid for the high-priced
bagging and the freight both ways
and never received one cent Of our
money back. The bagging and ties
on 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 q 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.
The spinners will tell you that the
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;
ners' 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 tare
comes in.
If a farmer only puts twenty
pounds of bagging and ties on
bale, he of course loses whatever he
pays for the bagging and ties, plus
the weight of the same both ways,
and also ten pounds of his lint. Now
this old, primitive method of doing
business should be abolished. We
can get rid Of it by encouraging the
adoption of compresses at the local
gin that will compress our cotton into
a nice neat package, to the required
shipping density, and cover the bale
with cotton bagging. Under this
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
hat burden would be thrown off.
Besides all these enormous savings,
We would be using our OWE material
and developing new home industries
n the South.
The introduction of these econom-
C features is, of course, difficult, and
almost impossible with our present
leavy, cumbersome, loose bale, which
las to be re-packed before it can be
made ready for transportation
abroad. But the time is now ripe
or inaugurating the desired changes, :
nd foreign handlers and spinners
re extremely anxious to see these
eforms, as they have already been
pplied to cotton baled in other coun-
ries.
MADE GRAY BY FRIGHT.
Coman Nants SIC 0fl0 for Reinc