10 CIRCULAR NO. 130, BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 



THE DEMAND FOR LONG-STAPLE COTTON. 



The commercial factor is perhaps the most uncertain. The future 

 of the long-staple industry in Louisiana, as well as in other parts of 

 the United States, depends upon the extent to which this kind of fiber 

 is used. To solve the agricultural problems of producing long-staple 

 cotton may avail little if the manufacturing problems are to be solved 

 on the basis of short staples. The tendency of the manufacturing 

 world for many years past has been toward a substitution of short 

 staples for long. The textile machinery has been improved, instead 

 of improving the cotton. 



Until a few decades ago all of the finer fabrics required long-staple 

 cotton, but the successive steps of mechanical improvement have made 

 it possible to spin finer and finer threads of short cotton and produce 

 fabrics closely similar to those that had been made previously from 

 long staples. Wliatever the advantages of economy to the manu- 

 facturer, the substitution of short fiber for long is not in the interest 

 of the consuming public. The short-staple fabrics are undoubtedly 

 inferior in strength and durability. Indeed, this lack of durability 

 is appreciated by manufacturers as tending to more frequent sales and 

 larger profits. As long as it is more profitable to supply the short- 

 staple fabrics tTiey will doubtless continue to be furnished. 



The substitution has gone on verj^ gradually, of course, and with- 

 out attracting any attention from the general public. Indeed, the 

 public is now without any means of distinguishing long-staple fabrics 

 from short, for the quality can no longer be judged, as formerly, by 

 the fineness of the fabric. What may be considered as the last cam- 

 paign of substitution dates back a few years, when a small cotton 

 crop in Egypt aroused the apprehension of the manufacturers regard- 

 ing the supply of that type of long-staple cotton. The result was 

 that new lines of substitutes for Eg}^ptian cotton fabrics, made of 

 American Upland cotton, were placed on the market. Thus, the 

 gradual substitution of shorter staples has gone on until now the 

 manufacturers of thread consider theirs as the only branch of the 

 textile industry that is really dependent on long-staple cotton. 

 Thread, of course, must be strong, because its streng-fh is so easily 

 tested, but for most other purposes the substitution of short fiber is 

 possible, if not already accomplished. 



Even in articles like automobile tires that are popularly supposed 

 to be made of Sea Island cotton, short fiber is being used. The Sea 

 Island industry, instead of being stimulated by the manufacture of 

 automobile tires, has stood still or declined, so that the planters of 



[Cir. 130] 



