The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1914-11-06
1914-MEMBER-1915
MISSISSIPPI PRESS ASSOCIATION


VI JILL WALT ON ~"
There has been so much said and written about the management
of the state farms during the last two years that many no doubt have a
somewhat bewildered idea as to what was made on the farms.
Prompted by a endeavor to get at the facts and to apprise our read
es of the amount of cotton and cotton seed sold from these farms.
we have gone to some little trouble to get accurate information and
as a result of our labors we give below the number of bales of cotton
sold and the number of pounds of cotton seed sold, and the gross.
receipts from each from the year 1905 up to and including the year
1913. The public will understand thar no employee or officer of the
state in charge of these farms has any authority to use the receipts
from any of the products of the farms but the products are required
10 be sold and turned into the state treasury, the funds to conduct
the farms being provided by appropriation by the legislature. By
this means there is little trouble in getting at the gain or loss each
year. In our tabulation we take into account only the cotton and
cotton seed, but it is needless 20 say in the presence af Mississippi
farmer that these, and these almost alone. constitute the money crop
of any farm. OF course there were doubtless some corn and some
hay raised and possibly sold, but the receipts from these two items
were inhnitesimal as compared 10 the cotton and cotton seed. In a
recent article which was published by those who are DESTROYS of
making the public forget any stealage, a profit was figured out fr.
each year, but TO do this it was necessary to take into consideration
inventories, that is the value of things on the farms, which vary &C
cording to the judgment of those who make the estimate. The
main thing a Mississippi farmer has figured on in the past is the cot
on and cotton seed made other things are merely sideines. Our
readers are asked to remember that the price of cotton ran up in the
winter of 1910 to from 10 10 20 cents, long staple sometimes selling
as high As 25 cents per pound and yet in the face of this the profit
on the farms for 1910 was only sI6oS2I45 and for 1911 there was a
loss of Sc, 1882; possibly Boyce & Co, who bought almost all the
state cotton, could explain this if they were inclined to do so. The
first year Gov. Brewer went into Office, there was a profit of $780,
II24S and last year G9I3 there was a profit S4 3,I44.7I, The Gov
ernors digging into the affairs of the penitentary has undoubtedly
been worth several hundred thousand dollars to the tax payers, if
nothing else is accomplished No little stealage was unearthed and
much of it was very naturally well covered and will never come to
light How do the taxpayers like $4,000 being invested in whiskey
and paid for out of the receipts of cotton seed sold off the state
farms How does it set with the taxpayers to invest $3.50 of the
states money in whiskey to be dished out to legislators who were
being Iog-rolled to vote for a certain bill? A study of the figures
below is worth the time and thought of every citizen:
442s bales cotton at sR- per bale. 1870 s2l8. 1854
1853 100 ID seed SIS SO per ton $50 b to baleD S3S59eS s247 $50 10 Loss
Appropriation to ~ farms 25O,OooOO s2,34a.s g
1905
ATOP bales cotton at s7S- per bae------s9O O 9S33
8sS3,926 ID seed $1,000 per tor 1919 ID to bale) 5s,1ll.9 s85s,o2O2 7 Profit
Appropriation Ito u farms 2750o0O0 $S4 O2027
1910
1892 bales cotton at $S364 per bale ------s SAL. 6S0s4
4ll6&@ ID seed 500 20 per ton 1895 ID to bale) 8 ,179S s472s6Os3 Profit
Appropriation to run farms 312,O39 Ss 1850 80. As
-l9ll-
369s bales cotton at $5S 10 per ae-------sNz42l 27
1888, $50 ID seed $2267 per ton C64S ID to BALE 81 POS. Al $244, 66s Loss
Appropriation INTO u farms 95yOUO0O $50, 1913 80
-l9l2- "
1856 bales cotton ats 724l per bae------s4s4.lS 1855
5455, go Id seed $256 per ton (8l6 bto bale) s. 372 "a $751;, so. 80 Gain
Appropriation to rm farms 275 OOOO 90 $277, sos 80
lob
1882 bales cotton at 500 40 per bae-------s5l22 OSsO ~
s,74Q 1852 Id seed s24 "a per ton Qu6l ID to bale) lO5, 1891 S61s, Ia. Il Profit
Appropriation to u farms 275,OOO 90 $33, LAG II
The reader will bear. in mind that Gov. Brewer went into Office
in 1912 and is also asked to note that the production of cotton
jumped from 3,69S bales in 1911 to $3.50 bales in 1912 and to 1872
bales in 1915, The State got only 64S pounds of cottonseed to the
bale in 1911, $40 ponds in 1912, but the Governors probe had gone
so deep that III6 pounds to the bale showed up in 1913.