190 Cooperation in Agriculture 



by the convention, and it further urged all growers to 

 hold their cotton "until the government reports on acre- 

 age show to the world that Southern cotton farmers stand 

 solidly together, that they have complied with their agree- 

 ment, and demand the value of their product." Follow- 

 ing this agitation the acreage of cotton in 1905-1906 was 

 reduced to 26,999,552, from 31,370,371 acres in 1904-1905, 

 while the price was raised from 8.85 cents per pound in 

 1904-1905 to 11.07 cents in 1905-1906. 1 



The Farmers' Union also favored the reduction in the 

 acreage of cotton, though this reduction has not been so 

 aggressively pushed by that organization. The Presi- 

 dent of the union, however, in the spring of 1908 issued a 

 circular 2 in which he urged the members each to plow 

 up from one to ten acres of cotton on the 15th of May and 

 plant peas. 



The Maintenance of Prices by Organizations of Cotton 

 Producers 



The Farmers' Union has endeavored to maintain the 

 price of cotton by naming the minimum price below which 

 the members shall not sell and by constructing a chain of 

 warehouses in which the cotton can be stored, and which 

 shall be an aid in financing the members. In 1904, a 

 minimum price of 10 cents was named ; 3 in 1905, a minimum 

 of 10 cents per pound, basis middling, at interior points, 

 and this was later raised to 11 cents ; in 1906-1907, a mini- 

 mum of 11 cents per pound was named; in 1907-1908, a 



1 Report of the Commissioner of Corporations, p. 333. 

 a Ibid., pp. 336-337. 

 3 Ibid., p. 340. 



