Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-08
BY ALLEN RAYMOND.

OTTON and Dixie have been in
separable in the mind of the
world for 100 years. but ac-
cording to the foremost rural
economist of the South today
this regions cotton fields are likely to
dwindle and may disappears IN q fast
approaching era.
The textile industry, basing its march
partly on desire to be near great sources
of the raw product, stepped down into
the Southeast during the last 20 years
there is almost ended, in the opinion
of engineers for a great utility company
which has been plotting out the chart
of future business.
Cotton Center Moving West.
The center of cotton production in
the United States is moving West.
Texas Is now the greatest producer of
all the Southern States. The rise of
cheap cotton fields there is one of the
reasons why the day of expansion in
Southeastern cotton mills Is nearly over.
Another reason is the fact that similar
great areas are beginning to grow cot
ton in other parts of the world, and
they, too, can, produce the Southeast's
"one great cash crop" more cheaply.
These foreign fields are about to cut
some millions of dollars annually from
the monetary bulk Of Americas cotton
export.
Soviet Russia, ~ a Herculean effort,
has just driven new railroad over a
500-mile desert q cad of schedule to
tap the rich cott0h fields of Turkestan.
The lords of Mosco@ declare that with
In the next five years they propose to
make Russia self-supporting as far as
cotton consumption goes, instead OF i'm
porting for her textile mills $84, 0O0, 900
worth of cotton year from the United
States as she does now.
The proportion of the worlds cotton
supply produced in Dixie has been de-
creasing steadily for several years. The
proportion Of short-staple cotton (the
poorer grades has been increasing in
Dixie steadily for several years. This
American short staple, less than an
inch in length, has come into COMPETE
ton with the swelling output of short
staple production in India, China and
Africa. The competition of these for
eign fields has reduced tie price of the
| American product on the world market
until the reward for raisiEE poor cotton
in Dixie is poverty.
Texas Production Co.'s Lower.
Yet Dixie raises more and more poor
| cotton. The farmers of the Southeast
| producing a low-quality crop have a
rival producer of short-staple cotton
nearer at home than the distant Orient
In the annual growing contests con-
| Quoted by the Dallas News, Texas cot
| ton growers have demonstrated that
they can raise crop at a cost of to
cents a pound. No grower in Dixie
| can meet price like that. In the pro-
duct1on Of poor cotton Texas must win
Volume production of this crop ir
Texas Is no longer dependent on hanc
labor. either for cultivation or harvest.
| ing, as 1t Is in the States east of the
| Mississippi. One Texas farmer ha.
brought to maturity and gathered 1,70t
| bales from 1000 acres with the help o.
only five laborers, according to recent
| report by Arthur D. Little. Under thu
old method of cultivation-still used II
Dixie-it would require 100 workers tt
i, plant and cultivate such an area, anc
200 more to pick the crop by hand.
In the area of Texas and Oklahoma
where once the long horn cattle grazed
and now devoted solely to cotton, Their,
Is ground enough to produce $4,000 ,00l
bales year. The total production o
the United States in 1924 wa
| 1858 900 bales.
The country is fiat as q pancake ant
the ground needs no fertilizer. BY /;
new method of notwithstanding II
narrow rows instead of hills-the Texa!
planters obtain crop on single stalk!
which comes up comparatively swiftly
They mature their crop before the Dol
| weevil, that plague OF Dixie. can do 1t!
| damage.
Instead of lone Negroes driving single
mules and instead of family groups al
a common toll with their hoes, one see!
| in Texas a cultivation that Is entirely
by machinery Three-row plows hitchec
to tractors enable single workman tx
cultivate 500 acres.
Crop Picked Mechanically.
Picking the Texas crop is no sons
festival for happy-go-lucky coloret
families Long "sleds" are dragged b,
the Texans over the rows and they
strip the plants of their fiber. Natur'
ally they strip of lot of trash together
with the cotton and separating the mix
ture has been difncult
The mechanical pickerS are improv.
ing. The whole process OF growing
loW-grade cotton is so much cheaper
in Texas than it is in the Southeast
that every intelligent cotton man III
the Old South knows today the culture
of low-grade staple Is doomed In Dixie.
Production is in the hands of the
ignorant, except for little groups which
band about able leaders and go in today
for quality cotton as the only kind Of
production which can save their agri'
culture. :,
mot impossibly the South Atlantic
and East-South- Central States are
doomed to a dwindling, disappearing
cotton agriculture, says e. G. Branson
rural economist of the University OF
North Carolina. Not impossibly the
story of cotton east of the Mississippi
River in the future may be like the
story of indigo and rice culture in the
long ago days in the south. Compara-
tive advantage in low-cost cotton pro.
duction lies west of the Mississippi and
it theatens beggary in our Eastern cot
ton belt.