14 BULLETIN 146, U. S. DEPAETMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



UPLAND CROWDING OUT SEA ISLAND COTTON. 



. In most of the Georgia and in much of the Florida Sea Island area 

 either kind grows well, but Upland is encroaching on Sea Island in 

 every county in which both are being grown. The reasons usually 

 given for this preference for Upland are that its yield is greater, that 

 it is less easily ruined by storms, that it is much easier to pick and 

 to gin, that there is always a ready market for it, that it is less 

 exhaustive to land, and that upon the whole it is just about as profit- 

 able as Sea Island. 



In both Georgia and Florida the Sea Island crop is made with the 

 strictest economy in human labor, and, indeed, in some parts of Florida 

 economy in labor is carried to the point of neglect. It seems that 

 if crops there were worked better and fertilized more intelligently 

 in some localities the yield would be so much higher that the costs of 

 production per pound would be reduced. But in both States hand- 

 work such as found in South Carolina is unknown. Cotton is thinned 

 with a hoe, or "chopped to a stand," and generally hoed once there- 

 after, but all the rest of the cultivation is with plows or cultivators, 

 resulting in a decided cheapening of the cost of production. 



INTERIOR MARKETING. 



The system of business for the interior market is different from 

 that prevailing at Charleston, or at Savannah, which resembles 

 Charleston in organization. The interior markets are of compara- 

 tively recent growth and have few rules or traditions which must be 

 complied with. In most of these markets some enterprising firm 

 operates a modern gin. The firm buys the cotton in the seed wher- 

 ever it is offered for sale and ships it to its ginhouse to be ginned 

 and baled. It is then offered direct to spinners by the ginning 

 company. In case the ginner receives orders for cotton he does 

 not have, he either buys it from some farmer who owns a gin or on 

 the Savannah market. 



GOOD WORK OF GINNING COMPANIES. 



The ginning companies have been of great assistance to farmers 

 in getting new and improved seed for planting purposes. It has 

 already been explained how difficult it has been to get new seed from 

 the Carolina islands during the past few years, but the ginners of 

 Georgia and Florida have secured the best seed obtainable under the 

 circumstances and have distributed it among their farmer patrons. 

 They have shown the proper appreciation of their situation and have 

 endeavored to remedy it. It seems probable that they will soon 

 find access to an ample supply of Carolina planting seed that will 

 produce at least a If -inch staple of uniform length and of good 

 strength. 



