SEA ISLAND COTTON" INDUSTRY. 13 



where it is profitable to grow Sea Island in its native home. But 

 until that time does- arrive, it is safest for the Carolina Sea Island 

 planters to rely upon home-raised foodstuffs and necessities. 



THE APPROACH OF THE BOLL WEEVIL. 



The prospect for a continuance of Sea Island cotton as the money 

 crop, not only of the islands but of portions of the mainland of South 

 Carolina, and of Georgia and Florida as well, is rendered even more 

 uncertain by the approach of the boll weevil. At its present rate 

 of progress this pest will overrun the entire Sea Island area in from 

 five to eight years. Those best posted on the nature and habits of 

 this pest are agreed in saying that it may put an end to the profitable 

 production of Sea Island cotton. Over this entire area the winters 

 are especially mild, the atmosphere is humid, and the hibernating 

 quarters abundant, all factors tending to increase the number of 

 weevils. As Sea Island cotton requires a long growing season and 

 matures late in the fall, it will be especially liable to damage from 

 the ravages of this insect. It is none too early for the farmers, espe- 

 cially on the southwestern border of the belt, to begin looking for 

 substitute crops for Sea Island. 



CONDITIONS IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA. 



A study of the Sea Island situation in Georgia and Florida develops 

 the fact that conditions are very similar in these two States, and 

 they may therefore be considered together. Georgia perhaps grows 

 its Sea Island somewhat more cheaply than Florida does, but the 

 difference is so slight as to be negligible. 



Florida was for many years the leading State in the number of 

 bales produced, but since 1890 Georgia has taken the lead in pro- 

 duction and now largely exceeds Florida and South Carolina com- 

 bined. 



In all three States the crops are made chiefly by negro labor, but 

 in Bulloch County, Ga., especially, and to a less extent all over the 

 Georgia area, white labor is largely used. Here farmers owning 

 1,000 acres or more go to the fields along with their wage hands and 

 do the same work that they expect their employees to do, and see to 

 it that they get the work for which they pay. About two thirds of 

 the cultivated land is planted in cotton, the other third being de- 

 voted largely to corn, but some truck crops, especially watermelons, 

 are grown. The farmers have corn and home-raised pork to sell 

 and are self-confident and reasonably prosperous. They think 

 that they can make a living out of Sea Island at 20 cents per pound, 

 but that there would be no profit to them at such a price, and that 

 it would be preferable to grow Upland cotton at 10 cents per pound 

 rather than Sea Island at 20 cents. 



