The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1910-09-01
A BILLION DOLLARS
FOR COTTON CROP
That's What R. H. Edmonds
Says, and it is Believed
to be True
NEW MARKETS ARE CREATED
The Old World Has No Cotton,
While the Demand for Ameri-
can Cotton Increases.

Atlanta.-Richard H. Edmonds, ed
itor of the Manufacturers Record,
while in Atlanta gave the following in
terview on the cotton situation: IT
this years cotton crop does not bring
to the South $1,000,000,000, Southern
farmers will not receive the amount
to which they are justly entitled by
reason of the abnormal condition
throughout the cotton-consuming
world.
Last years crop, including the
seed, yielded, according to the esti-
mate of Secretary of Agriculture
James Wilson, made public recently,
$850,000,000 In view of the decrease
in the worlds stock of cotton by rea-
son of last years short crop, even a
full crop this year should command
high prices, and $1,000,000,000 at least
ought to be realized by southern grow
ers for their cotton crop of 1910
ct is true that this years crop has
been costly to produce, because of the
shortage in the grain crop of the
South last year During the winter
and spring Southern farmers have had
to buy many millions of bushels of
corn from the West in excess of what
the South usually buys, because last
years corn crop in much of the South
was very short. We always buy too
much corn instead of raising it at
home Fortunately an increased acre
age in corn and other grains and the
assurance Of better yield per acre
will give to this section very much
larger grain production than last
year. 1t is alleged, and is probable,
that the grain crop of the South for
1910 will exceed 1,O00,OO0,OO0 bushels,
an increase of from 100000 to
200,000,000 bushels in excess of last
year.
There is no other agricultural prod
uct in the world so carefully watched
by the financial and manufacturing
interests of this country and Europe
as cotton. Upon it rests the prosper
ity of the creates manufacturing in
dustry in the world except iron and
steel, the output of which slightly ex-
ceeds the output of cotton goods,
measured in dollars.
1T is estimated that 100000 per-
sons in Europe are absolutely depend
ent upon the cotton industry, for
which the South furnishes the raw ma
terial In the United States there are
about 100000 cotton spindles, of
which the South has about 100000
In the rest of the world there are over
100000 spindles which must look
mainly to the South for their raw ma
terial.
above all other products of the soil
or factory cotton holds the dominat-
ing place in the foreign trade of the
United States. 1t is to our cotton ex-
ports that the financial interests of
the country must look for the balance
of trade in favor of this country, upon
which its prosperity SO largely de-
pends 1t is well-known fact that,
notwithstanding the enormous in
crease in the worlds gold production
of recent years, the value of our cot
ton exports exceeds the total output
of the worlds gold mines. In other
words, Europe could gather every
ounce of gold mined in the world and
pour it into the South, and it would
not quite pay for the South's bill
against Europe for its annual pur-
chases of cotton from this section"