SEA ISLAND COTTON INDUSTRY. 5 



(e) Having once introduced Sakellaridis cotton to make a given 

 line of goods, it is a hard matter to change to another cotton which 

 may be just as good. The customer usually grows suspicious when 

 the mill changes the appearance of its goods, and he must be argued 

 with and coaxed into taking the goods. For this reason, if for no 

 other, a mill prefers to run on the same kind of cotton all the time, 

 and it is as difficult to turn back to Sea Island as it was to turn from 

 Sea Island to Sakellaridis. 



(3) The deteriorated quality of Sea Island cotton. — Another cause for 

 the lessened use of Sea Island is that its quality is not so uniform 

 and good as it was formerly. "It has run down." That it has dete- 

 riorated is admitted on all sides. There can be no question of the 

 fact. Some of the causes of this deterioration are not hard to dis- 

 cover, while perhaps others have escaped notice. The most serious 

 cause of deterioration in the interior regions has been the refusal of the 

 Carolina growers to sell planting seed to others. This decision not 

 to sell planting seed came about as the natural result of the situation 

 in which the planters found themselves. In 1902 the culture of Sea 

 Island cotton was introduced in the West Indies. Seed was bought 

 from the best Carolina plantations, and some of the expert Carolina 

 growers were hired to teach the people of St. Vincent, Antigua, the 

 Barbados, and other islands how to raise and prepare this crop for 

 market. The effort to grow the cotton in the West Indies was suc- 

 cessful beyond expectations, and within five or six years the Caro- 

 lina farmers commenced to feel the West Indian competition. They 

 resolved to quit selling seed to anyone — not only to the West Indies, 

 Florida, and Georgia, but also to their fellow islanders. The small 

 farmer on the islands, if his seed was not good, could not buy the 

 better quality or the more prolific seed of his neighbor. He was 

 forced to plant such seed as he had, be it ever so inferior, or else to 

 turn to Upland cotton or to truck crops. As a matter of fact, many 

 farmers have turned largely to Upland cotton. James Island, S. C, 

 had more than 100 acres planted in Upland cotton in 1913. Johns 

 Island and Wadmalaw Island had more than half of their cotton land 

 planted in Upland seed, and Edisto Island had nearly as much Upland 

 as Sea Island planted. Here at the fountainhead of Sea Island cul- 

 ture short cotton had been introduced and was being grown in ad- 

 joining fields and in many instances in the same field. Cross pollen- 

 ization by various means, including bees and other insects, rendered 

 it practically impossible to keep varieties pure and up to the old high 

 level of quality. No matter how careful and expert the Sea Island 

 cotton planter might be, he labored under a serious handicap on ac- 

 count of the nearness on all sides to Upland short staple. The result 

 has been, as was to be expected, a general deterioration in the qual- 

 ity, through hybridization, even in the most favored section of the 

 Sea Island producing area. 



