384 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



The quality of the crop is superior. Rarely if ever have the re- 

 turns of cleanness and color, combined with length of staple, equaled 

 those just received. Last year the State averages were 7 to 10 points 

 short of the standard of good quality in all of the Atlantic coast States 

 except Florida and in Alabama, and nearly as much in Mississippi. 

 In the other States it was near the normal standard. 



The price of seed is low. Complaint is made of combinations of 

 oil-millers to reduce prices. Renters will sell at any price, sometimes 

 as low as 5 to 8 cents per bushel. The best planters refuse to sell at 

 ruling rates. The average in Mississippi and Louisiana is 10 cents, 

 11 in Arkansas, 12 in Texas and Tennessee, 13 in South Carolina, 

 Georgia, and Alabama, 16 in Florida. Feeders of cattle and sheep 

 pay the highest rates. 



If every planter would grind into meal his surplus seed and feed it 

 to fattening stock on the premises he would derive a handsome re- 

 turn in meat, and have more and better stores of fertilizers than 

 though he used the entire supply in the usual mode of applying to 

 the soil. It is important that the seed should be returned to the soil; 

 even if sold to mills, the refuse, after extraction of the oil, should be 

 returned, or an equivalent for it procured from other sources. A 

 combination to reduce prices of seed can easily be met by counter- 

 combination of planters to sell only at its equivalent value for feed- 

 ing and fertilizing. A single planter, without concert with his neigh- 

 bor, will increasa his personal gains by individual refusal to sell at 

 10 or 12 cents per bushel, feeding for meat instead, or even applying 

 to the furrow direct from the gin-house. It is a monopoly, therefore, 

 that should easily be circumvented, with or without concert of action, 

 at least by all intelligent cotton-growers; and returns indicate that 

 they have already measurably applied this remedy. 



The return of lint to seed is generally higher than last year. The 

 following table arranges the statistics here indicated : 



states. 



Virginia 



North Carolina 

 South Carolina 



Georgia 



Florida 



Alabama 



Mississippi 



Louisiana 



Texas 



Arkansas 



Tennessee 



Lint. 



Percent. 

 31.5 

 31.5 

 32.0 

 33.0 

 32.5 

 31.5 

 81.5 

 31.5 

 32.0 

 32.0 

 32.0 



Quality. 



Per cent. 



98 

 101 

 100 

 100 

 100 

 100 



99 

 100 



98 

 100 

 100 



Proportion 

 marketed. 



Per cent. 

 82 



87 



Price of 

 seed per 

 bushel. 



Cents. 



32 

 14 

 13 

 13 

 16 

 13 

 10 

 10 

 12 

 11 

 12 



LAST year's cotton CEOP. 



The ITational Cotton Exchange made the record of the cotton 

 movement of the product of 1885 6,575,691 bales. The Financial 

 Chronicle record aggregates 6,550,215 bales of 485,40 pounds each, 

 against 5,669,021 bales of 481,21 pounds; or, in pounds, 3,179,456,091 

 and 2,727,967,317 pounds, respectively, showing an increase of 451,- 

 488,774 pounds, or 16,55 per cent,, over the crop grown in 1884. In 

 actual bales the increase by this record is 881,194, and in bales of the 

 same size as those of 1884, 938,236. The crop of 1886 will prove to be 

 nearly as large. 



