COTTON PROBLEMS IN LOUISIANA. 5 



from the standpoint of labor supply, to say nothing of other dis- 

 advantages of a one-crop system. In other words, cotton culture is 

 likely to be more profitable as a part of a system of mixed farming. 

 But this tendency to decentralized production must carry with it a 

 larger extent of community cooperation, for reasons already inti- 

 mated. 



DETERIORATION OF UPLAND LONG-STAPLE COTTON. 



One of the chief objects to be gained through the organized coop- 

 eration of cotton growers is to improve and maintain the quality of 

 the crop. Even before the arrival of the boll weevil in the long- 

 staple districts the manufacturers had begun to complain of a serious 

 decline in the quality of the cotton that was being produced in Lou- 

 isiana and Mississippi. The complaints were on the grounds that 

 the cotton was sent to market in worse condition and that the fiber 

 was more uneven. It is easy to see that both of these results would 

 follow naturally from changes that were taking place in the long- 

 staple industry. Labor was becoming more careless because of less 

 effective control, and the old system of separate plantation gins was 

 being abandoned because of the greater expense in comparison with 

 the modern power gins. 



The result of bringing together at a public gin all the cotton of a 

 neighborhood is that the varieties become mixed, so that uniform 

 fiber is no longer produced. The superior stocks that were formerly 

 maintained on some of the plantations became contaminated, and it 

 became more and more difficult to secure supplies of good seed. The 

 tendency of the old system had been to preserve the beneficial effects 

 of selection, such as any careful planter might practice, and extend 

 them over the community, because the crop of each plantation was 

 handled separately and the seed that might be sold by such a planter 

 would also be handled separately on other plantations. But the sys- 

 tem of public gins has the opposite effect of making it very difficult to 

 maintain stocks of pure seed. And yet supplies of pure seed are a 

 fundamental necessity if a long-staple industry is to be maintained. 



The commercial and industrial value of long-staple fiber depends 

 very largely on uniformity, for lack of this quality greatly increases 

 the cost of manufacture. The short fibers have to be sorted out by 

 elaborate mechanical processes. If the buyer detects the presence of 

 short cotton he will pay only short-cotton prices for the whole bale. 

 Indeed, it is often difficult to dispose of mixed bales, even at short- 

 cotton prices. 



The problem of preserving the uniformity of superior varieties of 

 cotton by continued selection as a means of securing large yields and 

 maintaining the quality of the fiber has received special attention in 



ICir. 130j 



