Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-11-26

cotton. or course I don't know any
thing from personal observation, out
side of Georgia, North Carolina and
South Carolina, but from what have
seen in these states I believe that
about ninety per cent of the crop has
been ginned. Let any one ride on the
train, as I have, from here to Dur
ham, N. c., and they can not recall
any year when there has been so lit
tie cotton in the field.
If you take the average Of seventy
three per cent and apply it to the
figures given by the ginners' report,
1t would give us only a 100000
bale crop, and nobody will contend
that the amount ginned up to date Is
not much larger percentage than
of any crop we have ever grown. If
the percentage this year should be
the same as at this date in 1910,
eighty-one per cent, 1t would only
give us about 100000 bales. The
1910 crop Is somewhat analogous, but
it my judgment a larger proportion
has been ginned this year than ever
before at this date, and I recall the
1910 crop very vividly, because it 8
the last year 1 have made much mon
ey on cotton.
The fact Of the matter Is that the
farmers have been trying to hold
their cotton and get a price which
will compensate them for the short
crop, and the spectators and middle
men have been using the government
reports and all Of the efforts known
to their trade to create the impress
sion abroad and at home that the ag-
ricultural department Is under -esti-
mating the crop. When I was in New
York a prominent man said to me
that he believed 1t was being system
atically under-estimated for political
purposes. and that this was the gen.
eral impression in cotton centres II
are due rude awakening, for / am
sure that it is far from the truth.
My crop Of cotton will be about fif-
ty per cent short Of what 1t was last
year, which Is due not only to the
reduction of acreage, but to fertilizer.
It. Is a square issue between the
farmers and the middle men, and II
We will withhold our cotton from the
market until 1t Is demonstrated clear
ly that there is not sufficient to keep
the spindles running at the present
rate, the cotton will have to advance
to such a price as to bring it out Of
storage and check the consumption,
and it will have to be over fifteen
L.
sumption for this season runs about
$4,000 bales a day, and the prices of
cotton goods are improving; hence
consumption will tend to increase
rather than decrease.
Take the case of linters. A year
ago you could buy linters as low as
three-quarters Of a cent pound, and
they were running after dealers to
take IL at one cent a pound, LinterS
are bringing today seven and one-half
to eight cents a pound-more than
cotton was bringing at this time last
year. It stands to reason that II
these linters are being used for the |
Of ammunition, that, |
with the short crop, they must soon
be exhausted, and there will be a de-l
mand for the low grade cotton car |
ried over from 1914. Just think Of 1t |
that linters are bringing almost as
much middling cotton, and with this |
fact staring us in the face, and with |
the ability to borrow money on cot
ton. the farmer is not going to part
with 1t unless It shows a fair profit.
The December report Of the num-
ber Of bales from the agricultural de-
cotton world and 1t is perfectly natural
that the buyers Of cotton would use
every effort to gket the price as low as
POSSIBLE before that report is issued
They want to get all the cheap money
they can, so that when the advance
comes late the average will not be so
high. It Is utterly impossible In 1915,
in the portion Of the belt where the
soil Is deficient in potash, to make a
large yield because this crop has been
made at the expense Of the land.