The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-29
FARMERS UNION
 ON COTTON CROP
Mississippi President Says Re-
 ports Are Incorrect
CROP TWO WEEKS BEHIND
Labor Is Said To Be Generally Scarce and Grass Is Now Taking the Fields Owing to the Recent
 Excessive Rains.

Jackson, Miss, May 2S.-(Special.) )- President J. R. Hightower of the Farm er7' union of Mississippi has today given out the following statement con corning the condition of the cottor crop in this state;
 T noticed that the Commercial Appeal issued its cotton report for the eleven cotton states on May 25 Tn is report sh ows one and six-tenths (1.6) per cent increase in acreage for the whole belt. It also shows that Ms sissippi has an increase of 21s per cent. It further shows a condition of the crop above what really exists.
 q do not know the exact condi- tions in other states, but if said report has missed the mark as far In other states as 1t has in Mississippi 1t is very misleading. I have reports from 1762 correspondents covering almost every hamlet in the state. I have also re- ceived reports from my confidential correspondents in each county in the state, whose duty 1t is to sound the business men and bankers and get tn eIr estimate of conditions and acreage. After combining the reports from tn csc two sources and striking an average, I find the following to be the facts:
 l. The average reduction in cotton acreage for the whole state Is 7.9 from last year.
 g. The crop is Is days behind an average season.
 3. On account of the exceptional1y J wet spring and the grassy conditions of the crops a considerable portion of the cotton already planted is likely to be abandoned.
 A. The condition of the crop in the state on April 20 is considerably below 10-year average. The plant is smaii and uncultivated as a rule. The ex- cessive rains. have retarded the cultiva- tion of early corn and prevented the planting of late corn. It Is we'll un derstood by all planters that the corn must be cultivated first, and that the late corn must be planted immediat tely, which will further delay the cultivation of cotton.
 0Oilic lcW ScCItOHS udVts pltHty Ol labor, while labor is scarce in many sec- lions of the state. There is no increase in labor except near, the towns, and that increase is chiefly engaged in truck grow ing and diversified farming on account of the better wages paid there On the whole the increase in farm labor in the state shows only two hundredths of l per cent.
 6. I note that the comparisons of con- ditions and advancement are made with last year. Surely nothing could be Dlore unfair to the cotton growers than to make this comparison with the most un- favorable season ever known in the state A more unfavorable spring was never known in Mississippi than last year, ana had it not been for the abundance Of moisture during the summer months and the late dry fall, the very late planting would have been almost a total failure, and the yield from that crop would have been very much smaller than 1t was. It is not probable that combination ot such favorable summer and fall seasons will follow another late spring.
 The above data was collected for the exclusive use of the Farmers union, but 
 the farmers, and the great loss of money caused by these misleading reports l an. impelled to give the facts to the public at this time"
 Conditions in this immediate section of the state, the central part, not only bear out the estimate given by President High tower, but are, if different at all worse than he has made them. The best cotton lands, those along the creek bottoms, have drowned out, and the young cotton washed away. The rains hay- continued so long that it is impossible for the farm CTS to replant. The grass has taken all fields. and until a day or two ago it was rext to impossible to tell what a field, even on the hillsides, was planted to, or if planted at all so thrifty were grass and weeds. There has not been one week of bright, sunshiny weather, and conditions have improved somewhat, but labor is so scarce that great many fields of cotton will be abandoned.