72 COTTON 



bales with one handling at the gin may be com- 

 pressed tightly enough for export purposes; just 

 as a fortune awaits the man who will invent a 

 roller gin for upland cotton or any other econom- 

 ical plan by which the present wastes and the 

 barbarous laceration of the fiber may be obviated. 

 With American inventive talent put to this task, 

 we may hope before many years to stop this drain 

 on the wealth of the cotton farmer. 



MARKETING AND EXPORTING THE CROP 



Another waste in former days was in marketing 

 the crop, but here there has been in recent years a 

 marvellous gain in directness and economy. For- 

 merly the farmer sold to his merchant at the county 

 seat; the merchant at the county seat sold to the 

 commission merchant at the State capital; the 

 commission merchant sold to the dealer at the 

 seaport; the seaport dealer sold to the New York 

 exporter; the New York exporter sold to Liverpool, 

 and Liverpool sold to Manchester. Now all this 

 is changed how greatly changed will be seen from 

 the report of a cotton exporting house which 

 handles more than 300,000 bales each season. 

 "The cotton is now bought on the plantations or 

 at the railway stations throughout the whole 

 Cotton Belt by the representatives of large exporting 

 houses and by the mills, " said the manager of this 

 house to us the other day. "Our firm employs 

 more than 100 buyers for this purpose, and the 

 cotton is shipped daily to the port where it is 

 expeditiously sampled, classified, weighed, com- 

 pressed and loaded upon ships for foreign ports 

 with almost incredible swiftness. We have had a 

 train loaded with cotton fifty miles from port at 

 7 a.m., and at 7 p.m. of the same day it has been 



