Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-03-25
BULK LINE" COST
OF COTTON CROP IS
q CENTS ABOUND
(The Atlanta Solrnal News Bureau)
623 Riggs Building.
BY THEODORE TTELHR

WASHINGTON, March 24.-The
department of agriculture today
made public a preliminary report on
the cost Of cotton production for
1913, which shows. a bulk line" cost
of twenty eight cents per pound OF
lint. { .I...
Department of agriculture special
lists explain that bulk line" is the
line that marks the point on a scale
Of costs about which the price of a
commodity must hang if an adequate
number of producers are to be kept
in the business. At a price fixed on
this basis, So per cent of thee cot
ton produced on the S42 farms from
which cost figures were obtained
would have been produced at a prof
it, and sc per cent Of the farmers
concerned would have made money.
At a price fixed on the basis Of
average cost of production, 23 cents,
only 351 of the 842 farmers, or ALI
per cent, would have made a profit
The data from which these figures
were divided were gathered by the
office of farm management during
May and June, 1919, in parts Of
Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina,
and Texas. The records which are
for the 1918 crop, show in detail
for each of the 842 farmers the ex-
penditures that should be charged to
the cotton crop for labor, seed, fer
tilizer, manure, baskets, sheets, and
sacks used in picking, ginning, bags,
ties, use of land, use Of machinery,
insurance, taxes and overhead. These
figures have just been tabulated,
and the results of the survey will
soon be published in full.
Costs and Production
The department says it was found
that the net cost of production rang
ed from cents a pound to S1.07
Three farms, totaling only 35 acres,
produced cotton at the minimum
cost Only % farms produced at
a cost of less than IA cents, while
over so show costs ranging from 80
cents to $1.07 per pound.
The average yield of lint cotton
for all districts was 227 pounds per
acre. There was a variation in
yield from IS pounds per acre from
the lowest producing farms to 48l
on the highest producing firms.
Yield per ace, in general, shows a
controlling Influence upon cost per
pound. Where yields were high, the
cost per pound was usually found
to be comparatively low, and vice
versa. For example, the operator
who is found to produce 300 pounds
of cotton per acre at cost of $50 per
acre, produces at the rate of 20 cents
per pound. while the operator whose
yield is but $50 pounds, though he
keeps his acre cost down to $40,
~ nf tc
pound.
1t is pointed out that the 'bulk
line" as determined for these S42
cotton farms, almost comedies with
the price actually received for the
crop in question, namely, about 20
cents. The season of 1918 admitted
ly was an exceptionally prosperous
one for the cot N growers, and II
per cent of the farmers from whom
cost figures were obtained grew cot
ton at a cost IN excess of the price
that prevailed for the 1918 crop.
EEBulk Line" Principle
The United States government used
the bulk line during the war for
price fixing in Industries other than
agriculture, setting a price so that
from 80 to 80 per cent of a commod-
ity could be produced at a profit. A
certain percentage Of producers may
be expected to lose on given staple
in any given year, but economists
agree that if prices sink so low as
to make this percentage very large,
say as low as the line of the aver
age cost of production, SO many will
lose that production of that staple
will tend TO fall off until prices rise
to point where they will again COW
er the cost of the bulk of the prod
uct.
1.-The more generally farmers study
their costs and adjust their produc-
ton on the basis of costs and prices,
the more readily will economic
forces operate to maintain production
on profitable basis" says the de-
partInent.