The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1910-09-10
THREE FEATURES OF COTTON
Care of Soil, Improvement of Seed
and Marketing Are Factors
to Be Considered.

WV
ton Growers association, held at
Waco, Mr.. W. B. Weary. in speaking
of the future possibilities of cotton
said among other things:
"At present there are three special
and important features about the cot
ton situation so far as it's possibilities
are concerned. First, the care of the
soil: second. the improvement of the
Seed and third, marketing. AS to pro-
ducing cotton one-fourth of the South
is not in cultivation yet; of the 1884,
100000 acres in Texas only 100000
acres are in cultivation. This alone
is capable of doubling the present
yield several times. Again, by better
care of our soil and better cultural
methods the present yield can be
doubled on the present acreage. l
am quite sure our cotton in the seed Is
not yielding more than 80 per cent of
lint. It now looks like so per cent is
possible and there is not much doubt
of 40 per cent. This would increase
our yield one-third. So without in
creasing our acreage we can supply
the worlds increasing demands for
the next quarter of century, by bet,
ter cultural methods, better seed Sc
lection and breeding.
would like to call your attention to
the possibilities of cotton from 1nan-
cial standpoint, that which interests
US most.
The cotton crop is very important
one; the banker, the merchant, the
railroad man, the professional man
and the laborer, are all more or less
dependent upon cotton. These inter
ests should not only wish well for
cotton, but they should act.
To understand more clearly the i'm
portance of the cotton crop and the
amount of money a very small adj
vance or decline makes / will make a
few comparisons. We will first COM
pare our cotton crop with the capital
of cur national banks The capital of
the national banks of the cotton states
is 100000, 900; the cotton crop and
seed for 1909 is estimated to be
worth $1,000, 900, 000-enough to equip
10 times as many banks. Two cents
per pound advances in price on an
ordinary crop will amount to as much
as all this capital. The 1909 Texas
cotton and cotton seed crop is sufi-
cient to furnish the capital and indi-
yidual deposits of every national bank
in the state and have money left. All
the gold and silver produced in the
hn
cotton grown in the South annually.
We export more cotton annually than
the world produces in gold. Two
thirds of a cent per pound advance in
the South's cotton crop will produce
more money than is spent in the CON-
mon schools of the South, including
the five Southern states that do not
raise cotton.
The Texas cotton crop for two
years, with the seed, would buy the
state of Florida. Three years would
buy South Carolina and four years
would buy the District of Columbia
with the capitol One cent per pound
advance on cotton would bring to the
people of Texas from $15,000,000 to
$20,000,000 annually This would make
every mans shirt cost one-half cent
more, woman's dress one cent more,
the Chinese shirt would cost one cent
more, and the same for the Japanese
kimono. have gone over these statis
tics and made these comparisons to
impress on our minds the realities and
wonders Of cotton and to show how
much we can be benefited and at how
little expense to the rest of the world.
We can see clearly that If 1t takes
surplus money to build factories, rail-
roads and other needed improvements,
that if we will study some way to
make the crop bring small amount
more, it will produce a great sum Of
surplus money inz@S very short time.
If we would study half as hard to
conserve the value of our cotton crop
as we do to get capital from the East
we would build up surplus fund OF
our own to build them quicker.
There is great wave of education
spreading over the South-everybod
is talking better farming, everybody
is thinking of the development of our
natural resources-which is demand
ing a better and more stable price
for cotton. Our market system Is
badly at fault; thinking men realize
this.
Our states elect a legislature every
two years to amend our laws and
make new ones, and when they get
badly out of shape we call constitu-
tional convention to remedy the foun-
dation of our law system. l think 1t
time to call a constitutional conven-
ton for cotton.
/ hope the business men will see
that it is as much their business to
have good crops and fair prices for
cotton as the farmer. It is as much
their duty to do their part in this
great fight as anyone. We can not
win without them.