The Cordele dispatch. (Cordele, Ga.) 19??-1971, 1916-06-25
OUR COTTON SHORTAGE.


year should by all means entrench
himself against the desperate effort
that is going to be made to relieve him
of his crop at a price not at all in ac-
cord with the valuation that is going to
be placed by the law of supply and
demand Shortage of cotton this year
is going to cut greater figure in the
making of textiles than it ever has.
There is at present more real de-
mand for the staple than in many
years.
For a long season the mills ran on
half time or not at all, soon after the
European war broke out. They would
not consent to stock far ahead for
they did not know what to expect.
They ran only to fill orders in hand
and few other than the absolutely nee
essary ones reached them for the same
reason-business uncertainty on ac-
count of the war.
AS a result the world has used up
the manufactured supply. Evidence
of the fact is shown in the way even
Georgia cotton mills are now being
operated both day and night and ev-
erywhere there is a strong demand for
labor in these mills. They cannot
work fast enough.
If the farmer with the fine cotton
output this time steadily refuses to
have anything pulled on him or put
over" in the way of price, he will quit
the season with the money for his
crop and he is the man, and the only
man entitled to the good price for it.
Following is a government resume
of the last reports on the crop of 1915;
The crop of 1915 fell below that
of the preceding year by nearly
100000 bales, or more than 80
per cent. The production in every
state showed decrease, the great
est proportionally being in Okla
homa, where the crop of 1915 was
only a trifle more than half as
large as that of 1914.
The increase in the production
of linters during recent years is
noteworthy. Starting at 114,544
bales in 1899, the output of this
product increased to S80,780 bales
in 1915. The 1915 Inter product
even exceeded that of the preced-
ing year by nearly $4,000 bales,
although the cotton crop of 1915
was very much smaller than Of
1914. This increase in Inter pro-
duction is due to some extent to
closer delinting OF the seed for the
better separation of the meat from
the hullS, but more especially to
the high prices obtained for the fl
bre, whichis used extensively in
the manufacture of guncotton and
smokeless powder. Many mills
now obtain considerably more
than 100 pounds OF linterS per ton
of seed treated, whereas in ear
ler years so pounds per ton was a
high yield. ....... ...........
Sea-island cotton, of which o.
S44 running bales were ginned in
1915, represented in that year less
than l per cent of the total cotton
produced. All this cotton was
grown in Georgia, Florida and
South Carolina, the first named
state producing 57,572 bales, or
more than three-tifths of the total.
Although cotton is grown in IS
states, the combined product of
four-TeXas, Georgia, South Car
DINA, and acknowledgement
two-thirds of the total crop of
1915
Texas Alone produced 3,227,4S0
bales, or more than one-fourth of
the total crop of 1915. The next
greatest production was that of
Georgia, 1,90S,673 bales, or more
than one-sixth of the total. 9th
er states producing large crops
were South Carolina with 1,133,-
919 bales; Alabama, 1,020,S39
bales; Mississippi, 953,965 bales;
Arkansas, S16,OO2 bales; North
Carolina, 500, 494 bales; and Okla
homa, 639,626 bales.
The leading cotton county in re-
spect to number of bales ginned
from the growth of 1915 is Ellis
county, Texas, which reported
117,-337 bales. The only other
county to report more than 100,-
600 bales was Bolivar county,
Miss, in which the ginning
amounted to 102,S3S bales.