Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 141 



volved in war with England because, on account of the blockade 

 of southern ports, the English spinners could not get American 

 cotton? Do you know that when cotton growing was first intro- 

 duced into the colonies and grown in Georgia at the behest of 

 Parliament, King George wrote a personal letter to the Governor 

 of the Georgia territory notifying him that the citizens of Georgia 

 must not learn to spin and weave the cotton fiber into cloth; they 

 would be permitted to ship their lint to England, where it would 

 be manufactured for them. It was not possible for us to celebrate 

 the Fourth of July until we started something independent. But 

 today we are not yet economically independent of England, as they 

 consume almost sixty per cent of our cotton crop, and we buy back 

 over sixty-six millions of dollars' worth of their manufactured 

 cotton products. I think it can be said without fear of successful 

 contradiction that the cotton production, with the industries which 

 have been developed from it, constitutes the most important line 

 of industrial development which is founded strictly upon a farm 

 crop. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance that we investi- 

 gate thoroughly this wonderful agricultural resource and give 

 assistance to its development to the highest degree. 



Cotton is an intensive crop. It must be hand-hoed and hand- 

 picked. These are two of the processes in its production which we 

 have not gotten away from, but I believe the time will come when 

 machinery will be constructed that will do away with the hand- 

 picking to a great extent, at least. 



I would like to interest the people of the entire State of Mis- 

 souri in this great subject of cotton growing, to show you what 

 this crop will develop in future years, that this State can and 

 probably will grow three millions of bales of cotton, and manufac- 

 ture even more. I would like to see you as thoroughly interested 

 as we are. There is no product of the farm for which there are 

 so many uses as those derived from the cotton plant. Besides the 

 thousand uses of the lint, the oil from the seed is the foundation 

 of another line of great industries. The cottonseed meal is used 

 by stock men who finish their product for the best markets. The 

 hulls go back to the soil, and even the stalks produce a fiber which 

 only awaits a machine to develop it. There is no agricultural prod- 

 uct grown for which there are so many uses. 



The following from the Manufacturers' Record (Baltimore) 

 gives a fair idea of the national importance of the cotton crop. 

 In Missouri we have not more than begun, to appreciate the value 



