Report of Missouri Farmer's' Week. 139 



the yield of lint cotton per acre? I might almost say, none. Mis- 

 souri leads in the yield per acre of cotton, a fact that is not appre- 

 ciated by the average Missourian; and further, Missouri's cotton 

 crop is usually in excess of at least two of the commonly consid- 

 ered cotton states, namely, Virginia and Florida. The latest statis- 

 tics to which I can now refer show Missouri's yield of lint cotton 

 as being one hundred and thirty pounds to the acre in excess of 

 its nearest competitor. North Carolina, and two hundred and forty- 

 eight pounds per acre more than Texas, which produces the larg- 

 est total yield of any state and on account of which she leads all 

 the states in the gross value of her agricultural products. Fur- 

 thermore, a comparison of the statistics for the past ten years dis- 

 closes the fact that the average yield per acre for Missouri is in- 

 creasing while that of most of the other states is decreasing. 

 There must be a reason for this. Missouri is so far north that 

 there is little fear of the boll weevil; Missouri's soil and climate 

 is well adapted to cotton, grov/ing, and especially is this true of 

 Southeast Missouri. 



A year ago when I became a member of the State Board of 

 Agriculture I appreciated that cotton is a great commercial crop 

 for the Missouri farmer, that its production had received no en- 

 couragement from the State, that the cotton planters of the State 

 were groping in darkness as to the best varieties to cultivate. The 

 problem of increasing the yield by intelligent seed selection has 

 not been much more than suggested. I introduced a resolution 

 looking toward the establishment of experiment stations for the 

 purpose of determining what varieties of cotton are best for the 

 Missouri farmer to grow and to determine how great is Missouri's 

 cotton-producing territory. 



The demand for cotton is growing at the rate of about one- 

 half million of bales per annum, and it is evident that the day is 

 not far distant when the American crop must be greatly increased, 

 not only by increasing the yield in the territory already cultivated, 

 but also by extension of that territory northward. I am firmly 

 convinced that cotton can be grown commercially in all that ter- 

 ritory in Missouri south of the Missouri river, and instead of one 

 hundred thousand bales I expect to see Missouri's cotton crop ex- 

 ceed a million bales. It can easily do so and not seriously encroach 

 upon the lands now given over to the cultivation of grain crops. 

 If I should say that three millions of bales of cotton are possible 

 for Missouri you would think me beside myself upon, the subject, 



