Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1921-10-19
The World Facing a Cotton
Famine, and Its Meaning.


(From Manufacturers Record.)
Not since the Civil War period,
when hundreds of thousands of peo-
pie were idle in Lancashire because
of the inability to buy cotton from
the South, and when the desperate
situation then almost forced the Brit
ish Government to recognize the Con-
federacy in order to get cotton, has
there been the certainty of such a
world shortage as we are now facing.
The new crop is likely to fall be-
low 100000 bales, for it has been
steadily deteriorating during the last
three or four months. Adding the
new crop to the supply brought over
from former years will hardly give
us of spinnable cotton enough to
meet the worlds actual requirements.
1t is impossible to spin down to the
last bale, and therefore all mills in
this and other countries must of ne
cessity always have some stock on
hand and some in process of manu-
facture. Z"
The actual amount required, there
fore, will almost certainly exceed the
available supply, and the world will
go into the next crop shorter of cot
ton than it has been at any time since
1865 and 1868. This shortage cannot
be made up for a number of years.
The ravages of. the boil weevilr make
it impossible for the South to raise
a large crop for some years to come.
This section cannot possibly, regard
less of the price to which cotton may
go, plant and cultivate an acreage
large enough to give big yield while
the boil weevil holds sway, and there
is no remedy in sight for the ravages
of the weevil.
Moreover, the South is learning
that in diversification of agriculture
there is more prosperity for the in
dividual farmer and for the South
as whole than would be in cotton at
any price, and a large proportion of
Southern farmers will never again
concentrate all of their energies upon
cotton growing. They have this year
had lesson which for a generation
we have been trying to hammer into
the South, viz: that the most un-
economic and wasteful thing the
Southern farmer could possibly do
was to raise a crop of sufficient size
to give the cotton bears of the world
the whip handle. The South has
learned that a seven million bale crop
at twenty Gently or more per pound,
(and it ought to go much higher) {,
will be worth vastly more to this Sec
tion than a twelve million bale crop
at ten cents a pound.
1t is, therefore, incumbent upon
well-wisher of the South, banker,
merchant and manufacturer, and land
owner as well, to do all in their power
to encourage diversified farming, to
insist that the small land owner and
tenant farmer shall have no lien crop
credit at banks or stores unless they
raise sufficient foodstuffs for their
family needs, for credit on any other
basis would be an injury to the bor-
rover.
The lesson which has been learned
will be of incalculable value to the
South if, regardless of the price to
which cotton may go, this section con-
tinues to concentrate its energies up
on living at home instead of having
'its smokehouse and corncrib in the
West" he South ought not have to
buy pound of Western bacon or
Western corn. 1t ought to provide the
feedstuffs and foodstuffs for itself
and have surplus for shipment else
where.
Cotton is a curse, has been and
ever will be, to the South except it
be raised as a surplus crop, giving
only such acreage to cotton as can be
properly cultivated after putting in
a sufficient acreage for food and feed