OLEOMARGARINE. 483 



Mr. KNIGHT. I shall be very glad to accommodate the gentleman. 

 Does he \vant to be heard now? Is that the idea? 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. Would you prefer to be heard now, Mr. 

 Peters? 



Mr. PETERS. Either now or at a subsequent time. I do not want to 

 interrupt Mr. Knight or you gentlemen of the committee. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. I thought possibly you might want to reply 

 to some of Mr. Peters's statements, Mr. Knight. 



STATEMENT OF E. S. PETERS, PRESIDENT AMERICAN COTTON 

 GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN (Senator Allen). Mr. Peters, kindly give the 

 reporter your name, place of residence, and business. 



Mr. PETERS. My name is E. S. Peters; my residence is Calvert, Tex. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. What is your occupation? 



Mr. PETERS. I am a planter. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. To what extent? 



Mr. PETERS. I have over 4,500 ac-res of land in cultivation. 1 repre- 

 sent the Cotton Growers' Association of Texas, and I am the president 

 of the American Cotton Growers' Association. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. "You may proceed with your statement. 



Mr. PETERS. I would like to state, gentlemen, in this connection, 

 that I did not come here prepared with a speech or anything of the 

 kind. I came here on very short notice, and I have simply gotten up 

 a few statistics to show the amount involved; in other words, to show 

 that the cotton -oil industry will really be affected very materially by 

 this bill. I have here, figures from Mr. Hart, the statistician of the 

 Department of Agriculture, giving the acreage, production, and value 

 of lint cotton and estimated production of cotton seed in the various 

 States of the Union. I obtained them from the Department of Agri- 

 culture so as to be able to speak from official data. 



The acreage of cotton in 1898-99 was 24,967,295 acres. The produc- 

 tion of lint cotton was 11,189,205 bales; and the production of cotton 

 seed 5,594,002 tons. In 1900-1901 (the crop coming in now) the esti- 

 mated crop of lint cotton is 10,100,000 bales, and of cotton seed 5,050,000 

 tons. A ton of seed has been selling at about $15 to $16. That is 

 what we have been getting for it. Of course I do not know anything 

 at all about oleomargarine; but I know that a certain percentage of 

 the cotton -seed oil goes into that product. 



Senator MONEY. You say you produced 11,000,000 bales? 



Mr. PETERS. It is the estimate of the Department that the crop will 

 be 10,100,000 bales. 



Senator FOSTER. And about half that number of tons of seed? 



Mr. PETERS. Yes, sir; 1,500 pounds of seed cotton will make a 500- 

 pound bale of cotton, and about a thousand pounds of cotton seed. 



Mr. KNIGHT. What is that worth a bale? 



Mr. PETERS. It is worth to-day, I think, about 9 J cents in Galveston. 



Mr. KNIGHT. Five hundred pounds to the bale, you say? 



Mr. PETERS. Yes, sir. You are talking about lint cotton, are you 

 not? 



Mr. KNIGHT. Yes, sir. I wanted to arrive at the value of a bale of 

 cotton, and to get, as a matter of fact, at the value of the cotton pro- 

 duced. 



Senator MONEY. That would be $47.50. 



Mr. KNIGHT. $47.50 ; yes. And how many bales comprise the pro- 

 duct of the United States? 



