The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-11-28
PRICE AND CONSUMPTION OF
COTTON.

bigger han the South thinks. and his
belief is keeping down the price Of
cotton. Naturally, the foreign spin
ners and the northern spinncrs Just
as long as they read big ginning fig
ures and see the farmers bringing cot
ton to market in large quantities be-
leVe that the cotton crop is Very large.
Most Of them are putting it at fifteen
million bales. They cannot be con-
Vinced that they are wrong. and
therefore the South must either hold
it's cotton or dispose IF it at a rate
less than the cost of cultivation. There
IS but one way that the South can get
a decent price for the balance Of his
years crop, and that is not by merely
holding the crop-that of course, is
essential to the plan but of little val
ue unless Southern farmers follow
out the plan suggested at New Or
leans and all the farmers conventions
to-Wit: decreasing next years crop
25 per cent.
A prominent business man in Ra-
leigh recently suggested that the best
thing the farmers, who had not been
able to get all their cotton picked out,
could do. was to plow it in and SOW
wheat. If 25 per cent Of The land used
to grow cotton this year should be
planted in wheat and pats and kin
dred crops, the world would hen
know that the farmers were going to
plant a small cotton crOp next year
and before the spring the price Of cot
ton would go up. But they will not
believe that the farmers are going to
reduce the acreage next year until
they actually saw them plant some
other roD on the land used for grow
ing cotton. The spinners have agents
everywhere. They know what is 60
ing on better thar the farmers. When
and promise to decrease the crop, the
| spinners pay little attention to it.
They merely put their agents out to
see what will happen, and 50 many
times in the past it has happened hat
the farmers resolved toNreduce the
acreage, put did not do so that the
spinners now do not let resolutions
OF PROMISES u 1dIIIlcIS SOfcIn tnell1.
They pay attention only to what is
actually done. If the Southern arm
ers plant cotton land in wheat and
oats and food crops. the spinners will
know it and they will understand that
next years crop will be short n
therefore will be willing to give more
for this years crop. That is the whole
situation in a nut shell. There never
was q time when farmers were SO
we'll situated to plant wheat and oats.
Farmers tell us that much Of the fer
tilizer used on cotton this year re
mains on the land and would do much
toward fertilizing a wheat crop this
winter.
he consumption OF cotton by the
world mas grown to be SO large that
cotton is worth more than the price
it is now bringing. In a communica-
ton in The News and Observer a few
days ago Col. Chas e. Johnson, who
has given long study to the cotton
question and is we'll informed about
it in all it's phases, quoted the figures
to show hat the consumption of all
the varieties Of cotton for the twelve
months closing with August 81, 1911,
amounted to 17.S19.070 bales. distrib-
uted as follows: The United States,
4,6e6,OO0 bales; Great Britain, 3,3s4,-
$50 bales; Russia, 1,751,619 bales;
Germany 1.6s5,192 bales; India, l.
479,SO3 bales. and Japan, 1~,254,o7S
bales The total consumption of Am
erican cotton vas 11,55e.401 bales;
East Indian. 3,647,714 bales, and
Egyptian. 6S4,S22 bales.
With such large consumption Of
American cotton, the price ought not
to be under thirteen or fourteen cents
il the crop should be thirteen Or four
teen million bales, and certainly not
less than twelve cents II It should