The Nevada County picayune., 1911-03-31
MORE OUT OF COTTON CROP
Main Object of All Is How to Do Things More rofitsbly-Farmers
 Should Produce Food.

CTS how to market 1t, and so on. The main object of all Is to show us the way to do things profitably. But 1t seems to me that we have yet failed to reach a satisfactory solution as a whole, and l am going to try to prove that 1t is our own fault. says writer in the Southern Cultivator.
 It stands to reason that the law of supply and demand ought to govern the price of any marketable product, and we will admit that 1t does in most cases. But it seems that this law has had little or no effect on the price of cotton for the past two years. Au- thorities tell us that since 1900 the consumption of cotton fin the south ern mills alone has increased by r. 100000 bales; Tn northern mills by 600.000 bales. and the export demand by 2.400000 bales. Our population is ufacturing industries are multiplying everywhere and civilization Is spread ing from pole to pole.
 With all these conditions it would require at least 14,000,000 bales of cot ton to supply a normal demand Have we produced 1t in any year except 1908? Is there any chance for 1t to ba produced this year? Then 1t must be fact that the present production is and will be insufficient to meet the ac tual needs of the world. Do any of us believe that the average price paid for the past two years, or the present price, is commensurate with the produc- ton? Isn't it a fact plain enough that the supply is having no effect towards governing the price? Then what is the trouble? Why these unnatural conditions? Why Is 1t that the cotton mills largely, have to cease opera tions from 30 to 90 days every year for the past several years? You ask the manufacturers and they will tell you right now that there Is no de- mand from the tobbers; that the warerooms are stocked up with goods which they would be glad to sell at cost; that they have been running their mills at loss for months, and are obliged to shut down until they can get orders for goods You inquire of the jobbers and they will inform you that their store rooms are over stocked and they have called in their travelling salesmen for the lack of busi ness If you would walk into the store of the general retail merchant and watch for 90 minutes, you will see, without asking, that he sells s1o worth of groceries to where he sells one of dry goods. You ask the people,. the great mass of consumers, and we all answer with one accord: Food products are so high that we can't afford to buy clothes" It takes all that we make, and with some, more than we make, to buy something to eat, to fill the dinner pail, to keep the pot boiling" And right here, fel- low farmers, Is where the whole trou- ble lies. It is within our own doors Food products are too high. Why? Because there are more consumers than producers. Why? Because we southern farmers are buying our food instead of producing 1t. And just so long as such conditions continue, we will never be able to command a profit able price for our cotton, 1t mat ters not how short the crop may be. or how hard we may struggle to make It.
 Congress may investigate the cause of the high prices for food products It'll the stars fall," but what will 1t all amount to so long as we southern farmers are having to buy our own food for man and beast, instead of producing 1t?
 Isn't 1t disgrace for country like this good old southland, with the soils, the climate, and the seasons, to pro- duce all the essentials to have to de- pend upon another for It's food? We are not only doing ourselves a great injustice. but we are causing our city folks to suffer, we are demoralizing our manufacturing industries. Some of us complain of the eurtailment or shut ting down of our mills Some say that 1t is all for purpose, that it is done to squeeze the cotton producer. But is 1t reasonable to believe that any institution would cease operation so long as they were manufacturing at a profit? Do we believe that the directors of our cotton mills would be so inhuman as to turn their oper- atives out of doors in order to keep down the price of cotton, or to put money in their own pockets2 No; we don't believe this. we simply talk more than we think
 l admit brother farmers, that we are sometimes duped. but most of our grievances are not well founded. The trouble Is with our own methods. We have got to change our system of farming. We must produce our food supplies instead of buying them or else our country will forever be at the mercy of some other, our conditions will grow worse instead of