The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1917-10-31
R. D. COTHRAN TEELS OF
THE TOBACCO SITUATION
IN VIRGINIA TERRITORY
Editor The Times.

| have wanted to give vent to my
inclinations for some time and get
before the people of my county some
news from the tobacco front A brief
preliminary will suffice to show why
l haven't done SO before this. In the
first place I had my hands full up
to the time of my departure from
Manning for the Virginia front.
Messrs. L. O. Holloway and G. r.
Bowen, of Lake City, S. c., and my
self, came to the little town of
BrooRneal in Southern Virginia, on
the 5th of September. We were only
a few days in getting our army orga-
nized, and then came the big task of
meeting and getting acquainted with
the people whom we are fighting for.
One by one and two by two the boys
came into our fort and looked over
our Notifications. Our big trio stood
erect, all attention. We told these
good, horny handed sons of toll that
"c had twenty years experience in
Fighting battles for highest prices to
be obtained on tobacco. We told the
boys that we were from the sunny
slopes Of Eastern South Carolina,
that we came from the land of sun
shine and flowers, the land where the
country in which we lived was flowing
with money, and when they asked
how the people came in possession of
this money, we told them by grow
ing tobacco and selling it with us.
The boys soon began to try us out,
and still others came, doubling at
first, but when they bcheld us and saw
for themselves, they exclaimed with
one accord, like the queen of old,
when she beheld the glory of King
Solomon, "The half was never told
to u.s."
though tobacco prices were cx-
tremely high with us this season, and
they were, but we have swan in
prices until we go from seven to ten
dollars per hundred over South Caro-
lima prices. | am proud to state that
we averaged better than $1,000 per
hundred at our house the past week.
Our market led the State of Virginia
by better than one dollar per hundred
pounds.
We are sending out our cars every
afternoon all over this country, and
spreading the good tidings to every
nook and corner.
The government report came out
the other day, and we find the crop
to be only about a million pounds
more than last year. The demand
for cigarettes has increased about
twenty to twenty five times inside of
the last ten years. Bright cigarette
types of tobacco have become very
scarce and the demand exceedingly
great. This demand has become so
great that these cutter types bring
from forty to forty-scvcn dollars per
hundred. Wrappers are scarce and
bringing from fifty to seventy-fvc
dollars per hundred based on quality.
The common grades are still higher
than | have ever seen them. Some
OF the farmers gather the old, burnt,
cndcr leaves, and pick them up from
the ground Some of them, absolute
y burnt up, sell at from five to seven
dollars per hundred. On last Mon
day for $4,000 pounds, we averaged,
floor scrap, cindcrs and ALL $33.43
per hundred. 1t is a coin,non thiny
to get from $500 to $3.50 for a one
horse wagon load with Holloway,
Bowen d Cothran. | sold two loads
of tobacco Friday for $l1&5.00.
Farmers all over the South have at
least come into their own, but | want
you good Clarendon people to know
that leaf tobacco is still leading
"King Cotton" by a margin Of from
six to seven dollars per hundred. |
want you boys to prepare your plant
beds well and plant all the tobacco
you can in 1918. | expect to see prices
that will amply repay the growers for
all trouble. ] base this on supply
and demand. | want us to build a
greater Manning market next sum
mcr than we have had in the past.
expect to have seed for free dis
tribution in Manning on time at
Huggins' Five and Ten Cents Store.
r. d. Cothran.