Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1909-10-24
Americas, Ga, October ii, 1909.
THE WARNING FOR THE YEAR
AHEAD.

One of the results OF the high price
which we are obtaining for the cot
ton crop Of 1909 is manifested in the
activity being displayed by manufac
turers in Europe in the effort to pro-
mote the successful cultivation of cot
ton in other quarters of the world
Thus both England and Germany have
been making experiments in South
Africa. while time and again similar
undertakings have been planned there
and elsewhere by government instru-
mentality O. individual agencies.
Ever since the invention of the
cotton gin made the production of the
feecy staple an important industry,
the Southern States have held a prac-
teal monopoly of the worlds supply
of raw cotton. So true is this that
there are many who, noting the re
peated failures of experiments in cot
ton cultivation in other parts of the
world, have persuaded themselves
that this monopoly Will never be brok-
en- 1t would not be wise for the
Southern farmer to rely too strongly
upon such an assumption.
The failures that have been record.
ed against the experiments in cotton
production outside of the United
States have not, in all cases, resulted
from difficulties in getting the cotton
to grow. There are many obstacles
that it is necessary to overcome in
adapting a particular industry to con-
ditions that exist in countries to
which they may have been previously
unknown To illustrate the point. we
may mention the fact that the labor
question has been one of the most
| stubborn obstacles with which the ex-
! periments in some sections has had to
contend. while other obstacles born of
local conditions have interposed in
other sections to prevent the success
of such experiments.
But it would be folly to conclude
from these isolated facts in connec-
ton with imperfect experiments, that
the profitable development of the cot
ton producing industry rs impossible
outside of the American cotton belt.
With the restless aggressiveness Of
the British and German manufactur-
| ers, and with the enterprise and mon
ey they are expanding in investigating
and experimenting with cotton pro-
duction elsewhere than in the United
States, there is no reasonable ground
upon which to base a conclusion that
they will not succeed.
AS the semi-tropica1 countries of
Africa. Asia and South America shall
reach a higher state of development
and as civilization shall be establish
ed in those countries upon an orderly
and permanent basis, there seems lit
tie room to doubt that the cotton
| growing industry will be developed in
those latitudes to an extent that will
enable them seriously to compete
with the American industry. This is
an event that suggests a topic
4 for serious consideration on the part
Of the cotton planters of the South to-
day
The high price which cotton is
/ bringing now will be a great tempta-
ton to tie farmer to defy the boil wee
vii and increase his acreage next year
To do So the New Orleans States
holds, would be fatal blunder. AS
/ the States points out, every year, first
from one cause and then another, the
cotton industry seems to be becoming
more and more hazardous. The grad
ual wearing out of the soil as a result
of improvident agricultural methods,
ought to have been a sufficient warn
ing, but it took the bool weevil to de-
monstrate prac tically the folly of the
all-cotton system. AS a result of the
destruction wrought by the boil Wee
vii in 1907-08 diversification has been
pracdcsed over a large section of the
country during the prese@t year, and
with the most gratifying esults.
Thus, the warning seems to have
been given the farmer of the inevitable
| passing of the Souths monopoly Of
cotton production. and with the warn
ing came also the open door of escape
in the satisfactory results obtained
from the efforts to diversity. This
diversifcation has enabled the farmer,
in many instances, to realize far more
profit from ten acres of cotton than
he realized last year from fifteen
acres, and in addition he has produc-
ed much that he formerly bought I'M
der the all-cotton system.
1t would be a calamity, indeed, if
the cotton farmer should be beguiled
by the good price which he is now
| realizing for his small crop of cotton,
into forgetting the salutary lesson
which the years experience has striv-
en- to impress upon him, and into fall
ing back into the old ruts again.
The farmer will never have a more
favorable opportunity to fortify him
self against every adverse condition
that might oyertake the cotton pro-
! ducing industry than has been afford
ed by the present combination of cir
cumstances which has made his ex-
pertinent at diversiication far more
successful than he had reason to ex-
| pect at the outset.
A burnt child usually goes back to
see what bit him.