226 
NAA ORs»: 
| JANUARY 3, 1907 
COTTON CULTIVATION IN THE UNITED 
STATES OF AMERICA. 
RECENT event the results of which may be of 
far-reaching importance was the visit of the 
commission appointed by a number of representative 
cotton-spinners ‘‘ to male inquiry on the spot so as to 
ascertain, as nearly as possible, the cost of growing 
cotton, and the economic conditions under which it 
is produced in the cotton belt of the United States 
of America; also to investigate the methods of 
ginning, baling, marketing, and transport of the 
product.”’ 
The report of the commissioners is of great interest 
as affording a critical survey of the methods of cotton 
cultivation practised in the United States, regarded 
from the standpoint of the spinner. Moreover, the 
fundamental problems facing cotton-growers in all 
parts of the world are essentially similar—to obtain 
the greatest quantity of good-quality cotton at the 
lowest cost, to keep in check pests, and to market the 
product in the best condition. 
The lines along which these problems have been, or 
are being, solved in the country which at present pro- 
duces some three-quarters of the world’s total com- 
mercial cotton crop are of the greatest practical in- 
terest in all cotton-producing countries, actual or 
potential, because the average price at which American 
cotton can be placed on the market is the ultimate 
standard of comparison for their own efforts. 
It is clear, in the first place, that the United States 
suffer no restrictions from want of suitable land. 
Texas alone is estimated to possess sufficient land to 
produce annually 30,000,000 bales! of cotton. The 
average commercial crop of the world is now about 
17,000,000 bales, to which the United States con- 
tribute 10,600,000, Texas producing about 3,000,000 
bales. Labour conditions in the cotton belt, as well as 
the recent movement in favour of ‘ diversified farm- 
ing,’’ are opposed to great extension of the acreage 
under cotton, and a larger output would appear to de- 
pend on increased production per acre. 
SEED SELECTION.—The first place in the practical 
methods proposed to attain this end is given to seed 
selection. To those acquainted with the work of Dr. 
Webber and other officers of the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture, and the wonderful activity of the depart- 
ment in disseminating agricultural literature and 
advice, it is somewhat surprising to find that “ this is 
a point to which too little attention has been paid, no 
doubt owing to lack of knowledge,” but, as is pointed 
out in another connection, the small negro farmer still 
grows a large portion of the crop, and “‘it is difficult 
adequately to describe the slip-shod and primitive 
methods which he employs.’’ It must be remembered, 
too, that this report does not deal with ‘‘ Sea Island °’ 
cotton, and that the careful worl on seed selection 
which has made the cottons from Colonel Rivers’s 
and other estates world famous is not under 
criticism. 
Seed selection conducted on trial plots in an experi- 
ment station or in a nursery with a trained staff is 
tedious and arduous enough, but the practical difficul- 
ties are increased a hundredfold on estates with labour 
of a low order of intelligence. Other practical obstacles 
are also encountered. The first picking is generally 
regarded as yielding the best seed, but frequently the 
farmer has mortgaged his crop and sold in advance 
both seed and lint of the first and second pickings, and 
uses seed from the third and worst picking from which 
to raise the next year’s crop. Advances have, how- 
ever, been made, and two general principles are enun- 
1 The weight of a bale of cotton is taken throughout as soo Ib. 
NO. 1940, VOL. 75 | 
ciated. Where labour is abundant the aim should be 
to select plants maturing over a comparatively long 
period and giving a large number of pickings. Where 
labour is scarce the selection should be of plants which 
ripen all their bolls as nearly as possible at the same 
time. Two examples are quoted. ‘‘ Texas Oak ”’ 
(said to give the greatest yield of upland cotton) gives 
ro per cent. of the total yield at the first picking and 
4o per cent. at each of the second and third pickings. 
On the other hand, the variety ‘‘ King ”’ yields 40 per 
cent. at the first and another 4o per cent. at the second 
picking only a fortnight later. 
FERTILISERS.—In the eastern States (North and 
South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama) of the cotton 
belt careful attention has been directed to the use of 
manures, encouraged, it is suggested, by the phosphatic 
deposits in the neighbourhood of Charleston. Between 
1879 and 1905 the average yield per acre in these States 
increased by 35.2 per cent., whilst in the western 
States the increase during the same period was only 
4.2 per cent. 
CuttivatIon.—The negro farmer appears to be 
largely responsible for the very slow progress effected 
in this direction. Much land is still cultivated on the 
“« share system,”’ with all its consequent disadvantages. 
Improvements in cultural implements have been very 
rare, and the great desideratum is still an efficient 
cotton-picking machine; this operation alone costing 
now about 2} cents per Ib. of lint—-practically a quarter 
of the total cost of production, 
Prests.—The cotton boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis) 
is the most serious of all the American cotton pests. 
It now infests about one-third of the cotton area, is 
advancing at the rate of fifty miles per annum, and re- 
duces the crop to about one-half in attacked areas. 
The loss due to it in Texas alone in 1904 was estimated 
at 22,000,000 dollars. Clean cultivation, the burning 
of old plants, and the establishment of early maturing 
and resistant varieties by seed selection work appear 
the most promising methods for dealing with this 
formidable pest. 
GINNING.—The saw-gin, first invented by Whitney 
more than a century ago, still holds the field by virtue 
of its large output, although its defects are well recog- 
nised. Interesting information is afforded on other 
types of gins, still more or less in the experimental 
stage. 
Batinc.—The bad qualities of the American cotton 
bale are notorious, and the commissioners quote as 
““none too severe’? Judge Ogden’s description of it at 
the Washington Conference of Spinners and Planters 
in May last as “a dirty, damaged, disreputable, water- 
soaked, wasteful, slovenly, clumsy, highly inflammable, 
turtle-backed package.”’ 
The American bale has a density of only 22 Ib. per 
cubic foot, as opposed to 37 Ib. and 56 Ib. for Egyptian 
and Indian bales respectively. A bale with a density 
of about 4o lb. per cubic foot is recommended, and other 
improvements advocated in regard to packing, &c., 
which, if carried out, would, it is estimated, result in 
a saving of about 1,000,000l. annually, chiefly in cost 
of freight. 
The principal recommendations and criticisms con- 
tained in the report are worthy of serious consideration 
in all countries engaged in the cultivation of cotton. 
An effort may soon be made to put them into practice 
in the United States, as, owing to the action of the 
cotton growers’ associations in attempting to control 
supplies, a proposal is under consideration for English 
spinners to establish plantations in the cotton belt, and 
a second commission has already left England to select 
a suitable scene of operations. 
