The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1920-06-09
NON TIME TO SELL eeaEoN

i-E Columbia. June ,4-Decia:'::ig that
1.-THE world is facing thesgrea;ess short
age in the supply OF cotton eyelzknowa
lin its history, f. M MiNson, president
| of the South Caro!i2., DIVISION ef the
| American Cotton Association, today
issued statement skiing eye,yb 3dy
holding their cotton not to be fright
ened into selling it aow. He said the
iprice was bound 70 so higher.
! Col. MiSson.s sratcmer iiicn is
Iaddessed to The men k9.,dtng co:tcn, =
follows:
To Men Holding Cotton 80
! There is a tremendous combinat ion
at work to break the cotton, market.
Lots of cotton was sold months since
lat very. low prices. for future deliy-
Iery. The sellers have grown desper-
late. The spinners are helping them
ball they can by giving them all the
time they possibly can, to make deiiH-
lery, and all of them including the n
financial interests, have combined to
Ibreak the market this summer in the
Interest of this short interest.
Don't let the combination discour-
iage you, sirlply hold your cotton until
/ :iley pay you Your price. They must
haze !nuY cotton and that very soon.
We sl-e facing the greatest shortage
lin the supply of cotton ever eSperlen-
Iced in the world. We have had fonr
short crops scarcely any carry-ever
land now conditions surrounding the
new crop are such that. in my orin-
ion, we viii have the shortest crop
] this year we have. had in. five years.
While the crop in our. State is in bet
ter condition than the crops Of other
States, yet we are late and the boil
weeviI has already commenced depre-
I, dations It is attacking and killing
Iyoung cotton in the southern section
tof the State, and, in my opinion, 1t
will soon cover the entire State. The
farmer who does not make an ample
Isupply of food and feed crops will prac-
4 tically be out OF business after this
3year. / warn YOU to preaare for the
Iworst. Texas produces, more cotton
Ithan any other State. Conditions in
Texas are distressing. We have the
! following from Texas. under date OF
May goth:
. To-day 7 have been oyer the route
1from Palestine to Troupe, Tyler, Gill
tmor, Mt. Pleasant to ,Texarkana, and ]
found all kinds of crops, from not
3p,anted and the ground covered with
weeds and grass, to up and ploWed
land chopped to a stand. The first 1aO
miles travelled, or well into Jpshaw
fcounty, the cotton had nearly all been
planted and fully three.fourths Of it
up. The stands were not all good, but
lfmost of them are fair, though owing
/ to bad seed. and unfavorable weather
conditions, the cotton has not come
Eup like it normally does. Farmers are
at work trying to cultivate the cotton
where it is up and large enough to
work. z
+ eOver this 100 miles the rainfall has
mot been excessive and really ideal and
fabout right; after that they have had
jmore rain and the ground is now too
wet to plant or cultivate with any good
results. Considerable cotton that has
4 been planted and is not nearly to a
1 full stand and much not even half
istand and the ground is becoming
covered with grass and it viii grow
much faster than any kind Of crop.
The weather is warm and clear
| and as favorable as we could WISH
so if it only continues like 1t is the
crop can be planted or replanted and
be clean and really be better than
/ where it is small and almost covered
with, grass.
while the condition now surely is
not favorable, still with a few weeks
Of favorable weather and some cult
vation, it could improve wonderfully
All the streams from small creeks to
| the river in this part Of Texas or IN
north or northeast Texas have over
flowed and covered the bottom-land
]felds and will necessitate replanting
all such, land after the water goes OH
and the land dries so work can be re-
sumed and it will make such crops
very late. indeed
The following are comments from
letter from Texas Of May 10th:
mo doubt considerable damage has
/ been done to the fields and growins
crops by exceedingly heavy. washing
L Z
rains and in low lands. by overhoWiag
streams.
I'VE would now be glad if we could
/ have dry weather and allow both cul-
! tivation and planting, and we need
tnlore time for both than we would
need in ordinary times. for now we
! cannot plant or cultivate quickly with
"a grand rush like we have been able
Ito do in others years. on account of
the shortage of available labor on the
farms. The labor available does not
do the amount OF work in day that
it did in 1914 or eyen later years All
! the best help that once did work
on the farms have left and only that
Kind of labor that is worth very little
Ianywhere is left to do the farm work. y
| 1.-The crop is from four to six weeks
/ late. I will try as best ] can to keep
you well informed; but until farmers
can, plant and get the cotton UP 1t is
very hard to say much that is good
| This u-aS tho condition on Nav 26th.