Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1909-07-14
TO THE FARMERS OF ocoNEE.
Don't Sell Your Cotton Before You
Have Made 1t.

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Editor Keowee Courier: / see in
last weeks Courier letter from f..
M. Cary advising the farmers to sell
half OF this years crop of cotton for
IL cents pound.
Now, do not question Mr. Cary's
motive, but think his letter mislead-
ing, and If carried out in full would
cause the farmers of;the South to
lose millions and millions of dollars
on this crop.
In the first place, we do not know
what this crop will cost us, but we do
know 1t Is by far the most expensive
crop we have ever made, and if con-
dftfons continue as unfavorabie as in
the past few weeks, 1t will ocst the
producer more than IL cents; and
even with favorable conditions from
now on, 1T will cost about 12 cents.
So we see there can be but little or
no profit in the crop at IL cents.
Now, Brother Farmer, don't sell
something you haven't got and don't
know that you ever will have. The
cotton crop Is by no means made yet.
If 1T should continue to rain a few
more weeks, or should we have a
few weeks of dry, hot weather, or an
early frost, either of which would cut
the crop down to half Of what it now
promises, and add greatly to the cost
of making per pound, as 1t would
not reduce the cost of making the
crop in the least, you can readily see
that 1T is dangerous proposition, to
say nothing of the injustice you do,
not only to yourself and family, but
to your neighbors and the country at
large.
AS Mr. Cary says, our last crop
was sold at abaut nine and a half
cents, which was about cost, causing
this crop mainly to have TO be made
on credit. You can, therefore,
readily see the advantage it would
give the consumer over the producer,
with one-half to be delivered as fast
as gathered at cost, the remainder to
be paid for as soon as gathered, caus-
ing the entire crop to be dumped on
the market in less than three months
time, Cutting the market and the
mills would have five or six months
supply of contract cotton on hand,
and perhaps not in position to take
care of any more cotton at present.
So yau are left with half of your
crop at the mercy Of the speculator,
who can fix his own price, which will
be perhaps cents or less. The re-
suit Is you will not realize more than
about 10 cents for your crop.
Brother Farmers, it will require
about fourteen million bales of Amer
lean cotton this year to supply the
demand. 1t now looks like eleven or
eleven and a ha,l millions will be
the limit of the present crop, the sup
ply falling two or three millions short
of the demand. So we see nothing
to prevent us from getting good
price for our cotton this fall If we
will only keep our cotton until 1t
is needed, and let the law Of supply
and demand govern the price.
Now, some will tell you that 12
cents is high price; others will say
10 cents is fair price; say rea-
sonable profit above the cost of pro-
duction is fair price, and that is
what We should have. The business
men of the country want us to get a
fair price for our produce, but they
are not going to neglect their busi-
ness to help us to get it. So show
your own business qualifications and
manhood by contending for it, and
we will be sure to get it. Don't sell
your cotton before you have any
idea as to what it will cost you.
A. H. Ellison.