Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-01-13
Cotton Price Factors Which
The Growers Can Control

TINE South we'll may ponder that the
cotton crop of 1922, although in guam
tity next to the smallest produced
during the last twenty-one years, proved
to be in point of value the fourth largest
ever grown. According to the December
estimate of the Agricultural Department the
yield amounted to nine million nine hun
dred and sixty-four thousand bales Ga fig
ure which may be materially reduced in the
final reckoning) as compared with five
year average, 1916-1920, of more than
thousand bales, Yet for that short crop
the growers will receive, according to the
estimate Of this same authority, approxi-
mately one billion four houndred million
dollars. The price was 23.S cents on De-
cember 1, as compared with 1872 on the
corresponding date of 1921, 1879 in 1920,
SIS in 1919, 27.6 in 1918, 27.7 in 1917,
1913 in 1916, and 11.3 in 1915.
Sundry factors besides the diminished
supply go to make up the augmented value.
One of these has been the increased con-
sumption of American mills, which approx
mated five hundred and thirty-three thou
sand bales monthly for the first four months
of the season, or rate of some six million
ports also have been notably vigorous, their
total from August 1 to December Is being
upwards of two million five hundred thou
sand bales. Evidently there is good war
rant for the statement of the Manufacture
ers Record that 1.-The only thing which has
saved the textile industry from an actual
cotton famine so far has been the large
.arry-cyer at the close of the war.
More significant. however, than factors
more or less fortuitous are those which the
growers themselves can determine-such, for
instance, their system of marketing and
their methods of farm management These,
in the long run, are of greater import than
any turn of fortune, good or i'll. Con-
slider by way of example the seasons price
record, thus far, of the Georgia Cotton
Growers Cooperative Association. Mem
bers of the association have received an
proximately fifteen dollars a bale more
for their cotton than have the rank and
file Of unorganized growers in this State,
with prospect of still more advantageous
returns in the months oncoming Such
are the fruits of well-organized efficiently
directed cooperative marketing as dis
tinguished from the old haphazard and
wasteful ways in which all too many farm
ers still plod and struggle. In its first
from even the best and bravest beginnings
the Georgia Cotton Growers Cooperative
Association has abundantly Justified the
faith of It's founders and members, and has
pointed the path to a more prosperous, q
more stable, a more progressive common
wealth.
Through efficient marketing and through
a system of agriculture that brings him to
harvest-time with ample food supplies in
stead of with heavy debts for food pur-
chases, the Southern farmer will realize
the largest possibilities of his cotton pro
duction, whatever may be the drift or turn
o; oUnt,,tlons beyond his control To en-
courage such methods of marketing and OF
farming should be continual effort. OF
banking and business as we'll as agricul
tural leadership, for not until they arr
brought to prevail will the South be duly
prosperous and forward going.