The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1910-04-01
|waY wF ssoulD SICK TO LONG sIArlf

Greenwood, and Lefore County Z
most enviable reputation-an inter
national reputation, if you please
Foreign buyers specify Greenwood
cotton when they expect to pay thu
highest price that is paid for cotton
Do we want to take away from
our town and county this distin.
gushing feature as a cotton market:
No, for as it now stands, we have
the reputation of producing and
consuming nothing but the best
and if we change TO short staple or
account OF IAN imaginary boll-weevi
scare as a cotton market, Green
wood and LeRore County will imme
diately fail back into the ranks o.
the Commonplace cotton Market
and this will be an injustice to ou1
reputation as a community place
where the individual wealth is not
so marked, but where wealth is
general, a place of peace and plenty,
The following argument by Mr.,
j. B. Allen, of Port Gibson; Miss,
which appeared in recent edition
of the Vicksburg Herald, furnishes
interesting data to ooNTRovERT the
contention that Long staple will
not produce as we'll in districts
afflicted by the boil weevil as short
staple.
Every word is an argument why
we should "Stick to the BEST" and
it is urged that. every planter and
cotton dealer, and every citizen
should read and consider this arti-
Gle in full:
Ia STRONG ARGUMENT FOR
LONG STAPLE BY J. B. ALLEN.
There seems to be a prevailing
impression among cotton planters in
this and the Delta part of the cotton
belt, that long staple cotton can not
be grown at a profit in the boil wee
vii district. This impression is due
largely to the lecturers and writer's
who are telling the cotton planters
what to plant, how to plant it and
how to cultivate it. But when they
say that long stable cotton can not
be grown as proftably as short sta
pie, they lack the proper knowledge
on this subject, which l will prove,
as will be seen later.
The present high price of both
long and short staple cotton is caused
by the small supply of both Ameri-
can and Egyptian cotton. The lat
ter is a long staple cotton and comes
in competition with with our l IA
and l 3-8 inch cotton, and this
Egyptian cotton is worth today in
Alexandria, Egypt, from 20 to 80
cents per pound. It seems that the
maximum production of Egyptian
cotton, which is raised in the valley
of the Nile, has been reached, as the
crops have been steadily growing
smaller for several years. Now the
%spinners that have been using this
class of cotton, will have to look to
this and the Delta part of the cotton
belt for their supply of cotton in the
future, and there is no part of the
cotton belt where long staple cotton
can be grown to such perfection.
It seems to me that the cotton
planter in this section should plant
as large an acreage of long staple
cotton as can be properly handled.
By the term "long staple" I mean
any cotton that has a staple of from
l l-8, l IA, l 3-8 to l 1-2 inches
length.
There is every indication of a
large increase in the acreage of
short staple cotton another season,
and a small acreage of long stable.
This will naturally make shorts
cheaper and longs still higher.
Why not take advantage of these
conditions and increase the acreage
of long staple for another year.
It is necessary to get the bes
seed possible for planting, as all the
different varieties of long staple
cotton have at one time been brought
up to a certain degree of perfection
by careful selection, and there is a
natural tendency for them to degen-
crate both in productiveness and in
eugth and strength of staple, and
IN evenness. Now these degenerated
cottons are not worth as much to