Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1921-08-01
CONDITIONS BAD ON
SOUTHERN MARKETS
Lexington Tobacco Man Tells
What He Found In Carolinas
and Boosts Selling Pool

a Lexington warehouse, also OPP
crates a warehouse at Bamburg
is. c.. returned last week from a
trip to the southern markets.
| Mr.. Knight went to South Car
olina two weeks ago, intending
to remain there during the mar
keting season, but he found con-
ditions there so bad, and the
I warehouse business so unsatis-
factory that he left his business
! entirely in the hands of his bust
ness partner there and returned
to Kentucky to assist in the or
ganization Of the cooperative
marketing association in The
hope, as he put it, of saving the
Burley tobacco growers Of Cen
trail Kentucky from a condition
similar to thai which South Car
olina IS -ow facing.
Upon reaching Lexington he
went at once to the headq quart,rs
LOT the organization committee in
the Johns building ard asked for
Ia contract. He signed his entire
crop with the statement that he
was convinced that Is This asSo-
!c1atlon does not go ever this year
kentucky tobacco growers will
|eXperlence the most difficult sit
uation of any time since before
the days Of the first Burley pool.
Mr.. Knight brought back with
him some 80 Or 10 hands taken
from sales OH Mullins. ~Banburo
and Florence markets. The price
paid for each lot of tobacco is
marked on each hand. represent
ing a particuiac sale. These va
ry from ten cents to eleven dol
lars a hundred He lett the
samples at the headquarters OF
the organization committee and
there they may be inspected by
the growers and warehousemen.
OF the Burley district.
Mr.. Knight makes the follow
ing statement to the tobacco
growers of the Hurley district:
Il have been visiting South
Carolina markets every season
for several years and have never
seen conditions SO discouraging
as they are there this year. in
cluding such inlrkets as Mullins,
Bamburg and Florence.
Opening prices on the Bam-
burg market last year averaged
$17.OO per hundred. This year
the average was $500 per hun
dred
Mullins is the largest market
in the South Carolina district
and in that sense is comparable
to Lexington as 4 Burley mar
ket. 1t present, the most gloomy
condition | have ever seen any
where. Warehorscmen and bus
mess men say tha- financial I'd
general economic conditions in
that district are worse than they
have been during the last forty
or fifty years.
THE crop is not more than six
ty per cent as large as it was in
1920, and | have never seen to-
bacco show better color than that
offered on the Mullins market on
the opening day sale. Ware.
housemen pronounced it the best
of any tobacco grown in that
state Since they have been in the
warehouse business Yet the av-
erage for that days sales was
less than five cents per pound.
approximately one third of the
opening price last year
81 saw one pile of tobacco that
would have brought from ten to
fifteen dollars per hundred two
years ago, sell for merely ten
cents per hundred. The book
keeper in our warehouse issued
three checks to three farmers
covering their entire sales and
the three checks totaled less than
a dollar Many sales were in
sufficient to cover warehouse ex-
|penses.
"a large per cent OF the farm
ers moved their tobacco off the
floors and hauled it back to their
farms. Several OF them made
|the statement that the wood used
to fire cure it was worth more
than they could get for the to-
bacco itself. Many high class
farmers whom ] have known per-
sonally told me they were gong
to cut their tobacco and leave it
lin the patch, asserting that it
would not bring enough on the
market to cover the cost of cur