184 KNAPP METHOD OF GROWING COTTON 



United States have failed. This is the home 

 of the cotton plant, and if it will grow and fruit 

 elsewhere to the extent that the staple will 

 have a substantial commercial value, the 

 fact is yet to be demonstrated. It was ex- 

 perimented with under different suns during 

 and after the American Civil War and all the 

 experiments failed. Providence has given the 

 Southern farmer the monopoly of the indis- 

 pensable cotton crop and he need not take 

 fright when the price soars and there are heard 

 threats of turning Africa, Egypt, and other 

 countries into cotton fields, and making them 

 furnish the world's supply." 



The rapidity with which the industry has 

 grown in this country can be realized when we 

 note that the total crop of the South thirty 

 years ago was only four million balesj twenty 

 years ago it was six million bales; ten years 

 ago it was eight million bales, and the past 

 three crops have averaged nearly fourteen 

 million bales. Notwithstanding these three 

 extraordinary crops, the average price per 

 pound paid for them has been greater than at 

 any time in thirty years. A world-wide move- 



