570 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



May 1, 1921 



U. S. LONG-STAPLE COTTON PRODUCTION" 



THE urgent demand for long-sfaple cotton in the manufacture 

 of thread, automobile tires and the higher grade fabrics has 

 given such varieties an importance seemingly out of proportion 

 to the amount produced. While at one time long-fiber sea-island 

 cotton grown in the West Indies provided a large part of the 

 total cotton used in Europe, the world's production of this variety 

 at the present time is comparatively insignificant, being less than 

 20,000 bales. The quantity of long-fiber cotton produced in Egypt 

 last year was about 1,100,000 bales, and the quantity of upland 

 and .American-Egyptian cotton with a staple of V/i inches or 

 more in length produced in the United States from the crop of 

 1919, according to the estimate of the Department of Agriculture, 

 was 1,000,000 bales. Long-staple cotton is also produced in com- 

 paratively small quantities in India, Brazil, Peru, and several 

 other countries. Altogether the total of long-staple cotton^that 

 is, cotton having a fiber of lis inches or more in length — pro- 

 duced throughout the world from the crop of 1919 did not, in 

 all probability, exceed 2,250.000 bales. 



SEA-ISLAND COTTON 



The sea-island cotton crop of 1919 amounted to only 6,916 

 running bales, or 2,510,000 pounds gross weight, equivalent to 5,020 

 bales of 500 pounds each. The reduction in the production of 

 sea-island cotton, due to the ravages of the boll-weevil and to 

 reduction in acreage on account of the pest, has been rapid and 

 pronounced, the total for the crop of 1916 being 117,559 running 

 bales. Recent ginning census indicates that last year's crop will 

 be less than 2,000 bales. 



AMERICAN-EGYPTIAN COTTON 



The imports of Egyptian cotton into the United States during 

 the year ended July 31, 1920, amounted to 485,004 bales of 500 

 pounds each. The demand for Egyptian cotton by American 

 manufacturers has led to efforts to grow in the United States 

 cotton having its characteristics, and its culture has been estab- 

 lished in Arizona and California. The status of the cultivation 

 of Egyptian varieties of cotton in this country is presented in the 

 following statement, prepared by the Bureau of Plant Industry 

 of the Department of Agriculture : 



The crop of American-Egyptian cotton of the calendar year 

 1919 amounted to 42,374 bales of 500 pounds each and consisted 

 exclusively of the Pima variety which has an average length of 

 staple of 1^ to 1^ inches. The great bulk of the crop was pro- 

 duced in Maricopa County, Arizona, but several hundred bales 

 were produced in Pinal, Pima, and Yuma Counties, Arizona, and 

 in Imperial, Kern, and Fresno Counties, California. The prices 

 received w-ere by far the highest in the history of the industry. 

 Toward the close of the marketing season a sale at $1.35 a pound 

 to the producer was recorded. The total value to the growers 

 of the lint and seed produced is estimated at about $20,000,000. 

 The value of the crop in Maricopa County is stated greatly to 

 have exceeded the entire cost of construction of the Salt River 

 reclamation project, including the Roosevelt Dam. 



The acreage which has been planted to American-Egyptian 

 cotton of the Pima variety in Arizona and California in 1920 is 

 estimated provisionally at 256,000 acres, or more than two and 

 one-half times the acreage grown in 1919. Of this total approxi- 

 mately 185,000 acres are located in Maricopa County, Arizona. 

 Preliminary estimates of the acreages in other counties are: 



Arizona Acres falifomia Acres 



Yuma County 13,000 Imperial County 28.000 



Pinal County 10,000 Kern County 19'522 



Pima County 5,000 Other Counties 5,000 



LONG-STAPLE UPLAND COTTON 



Formerly a large part of the long-staple upland cotton pro- 

 duced in the United States was grown in the Mississippi Delta, 

 where a market for handling cotton of this character had been 

 created. With the increased demand for superior staple cotton, 



efforts were made in other sections of the cotton belt to grow 

 improved varieties of upland cotton. 



Complete data of the production of long-staple upland cotton 

 are not available. The Bureau of Crop Estimates of the Depart- 

 ment of .Agriculture, however, made an inquiry to determine what 

 percentage of the total crop of 1919 was long-staple. The results 

 of this inquiry are given for the crops of 1918 and 1919 in the 

 tabular statement below. 



LENGTH OF COTTON LINT— RELATIVE PRODUCTION: CROPS OF 1918 

 AND 1919 



Compiled from publications of the Bureau of Crop Estimates, Department 



of Agriculture 



Over I'A 

 Inches 



I'A to l</t 

 Inches 



State 

 United States. 



1919 

 1.3 



1918 



1919 



1918 



1919 



1918 



Percentage of Total Crop 



1.5 



.■\labama 



-Arkansas 3.4 



Arizona 6.0 



California* ' 1.0 



Florida 18.8 



Georgia 0.2 



Louisiana 0.3 



Mississippi 4.4 



Missouri 



North Carolina 0.4 



Oklahoma 0.2 



South Carolina 1.7 



Tennessee 0.6 



Texas 0.2 



All other States 



United States 152 



Alabama 



Arkansas 30 



Arizona 36 



California* 1 



Florida 2 



Georgia 3 



Louisiana 1 



Mississippi . , 42 



Missouri 



2.6 



7.1 

 1.3 

 0.3 

 5.4 



0.1 

 1.0 

 2.6 



0,3 

 0.2 



7.5 



0.3 

 15.4 



' Yo.6 

 1. i 



2.4 



31.2 



5.6 



1.4 

 7.6 

 6.5 

 4.9 

 5.9 



9.8 



0.7 

 20.4 

 3.6 

 13.4 

 7.1 

 3.5 

 3.8 

 38.4 

 6.5 

 0.9 

 9.6 

 7.8 

 4.6 

 7.0 

 6.5 



91.2 



99.7 

 81.2 

 40.0 

 90.0 

 81.2 

 98.7 

 97.3 

 64.4 

 94.4 

 98.5 

 92.2 

 91.8 

 94.5 

 94.1 



88.1 



99.3 

 77.0 

 35.7 

 83.6 

 32.2 

 94.4 

 95.9 

 56.2 

 93.5 

 99.0 

 89.4 

 89.2 

 95.1 

 92.8 

 93.5 



Bales in Thousands (000 omitted) 



North Carolina. . 



Oklahoma 



South Carolina . 



Tennessee 



Te.xas 



All other States.. 



3 

 2 

 24 

 2 

 6 



1 

 6 

 41 

 1 

 5 



12 

 75 

 92 



15 



181 



5 



8 

 55 

 122 



15 



189 



2 



814 

 907 



1.306 

 292 



2,878 

 22 



887 

 515 



1,397 

 313 



2,499 

 29 



*Including some prrAvn in Mexico. 



The reports of the length of staple show a total of 1,006,000 

 bales of cotton having a length of 1 ]4 inches or over, produced 

 from the crop of 1919, against 1,359,000 bales of this length of 

 the crop of 1918. The marked increase in long-staple production 

 is due primarily to the relatively high prices paid for it during the 

 last few years, and secondarily to improved varieties which, in 

 sections suitable to their growth, are showing themselves to be 

 almost or quite equal in yield and in early maturity to standard 

 varieties of short staple. Responses to supplemental inquiries 

 as to the proportion of the crop represented by specified lengths 

 of staple indicated tliat 1.3 per cent of the total crop ran over 

 1J4 inches, the percentage in Mississippi being 4.4 per cent of the 

 total crop. The most important states producing long-staple up- 

 land cotton in 1919 were, in the order of quantity produced, Mis- 

 sissippi, Texas, Arkansas, and South Carolina. 



•From Cotton Production and Distribution — Season of 1919-1920. Bul- 

 letin 145. Department of Commerce. 



L.\B<iR Terminology, Bulletin No. 25, Bureau of Business 

 Research, a publication of the Graduate School of Business 

 Administration, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachu- 

 setts, Vol. VII, No. 1, March, 1921, is a dictionary of labor 

 terms used by organized labor. This bulletin is compiled 

 after careful perusal of copies of constitutions, trade agree- 

 ments and proceedings of conventions of all international 

 and national unions. 



