194 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



The rush of cotton to market 29 can be seen in the fact 

 that 80 per cent of the cotton handled during the whole 

 year is marketed from September to February. Of the 

 11,300,000 bales marketed during the whole year of 1921, 

 over 8,000,000 were disposed of from September to 

 February. In 1922 over 10,000,000 out of 12,443,000 

 bales were marketed during the same period. In 1926, 

 10,250,000 bales were thrown upon the market during 

 October, November, and December, on the heels of a 

 2,698,000-bale shipment in August and September. The 

 market sagged under the weight, and cotton brought 

 lower prices in December. As a result, the facilities of 

 the Cotton Belt, poor at best for handling the crop, suffer 

 a near breakdown. Defective terminals, inadequate stor- 

 age, and a general indifference result in exposure that to 

 any other commodity would spell ruin. 30 It is not possible 

 to state with accuracy the losses to producers from ex- 

 posures, but it is known that millions of pounds of worth- 

 less staple are scrapped from bales, caked and rotted 

 from mud and water. In the season of 1918-19 the loss 

 from bales sent to the pickeries from the New Orleans 

 market amounted to 1,142,000 pounds, equivalent to 





29 "... the cotton crop . . . has been marketed with a degree 

 of foresight and regularity that can best be likened to a stampede 

 of Texas steers. 



"... The orderly marketing of the cotton crop can never be 

 accomplished by a heterogeneous, motley-minded mass of farmers. 



. . Anyone attempting to bring order into this chaotic state as 

 it exfsts today, has truly a Herculean task before him." D. B. 

 Osborne, Manufacturers' Record, Dec. 7, 1922. 



30 Statement of former Governor John M. Parker of Louisiana, 

 President of New Orleans Cotton Exchange, before National Agri- 

 cultural Conference, at Washington, D. C., Jan. 25, 1924. Mime- 

 ographed Press Release. 



