COTTON WAREHOUSES. 19 



so the estimate for the warehouses belonging to cotton mills might 

 be increased greatly without danger of making it too great. In the 

 column headed "Combined storage capacity for State" is shown the 

 total of both the public and private warehouses and cotton-mill 

 warehouses. 



STORAGE CAPACITY COMPARED "WITH PRODUCTION. 



The next column (Table VII) shows the 1913 production of each 

 of the States. It will be seen that the storage capacity of all the 

 warehouses is greater than the production. In addition to making 

 conservative estimates in every case, the list does not include ware- 

 houses in St. Louis, Evansville, and the storage houses belonging to 

 the cotton mills in Missouri. Cotton is moving to eastern ports con- 

 stantly and being exported, and extensive warehouses belonging to 

 the cotton mills in New England are used, all of which tends to 

 increase the available storage space. Further, efforts have been made 

 to exclude compress sheds and terminal sheds belonging to railroads 

 and other transportation companies, so in presenting this estimate it 

 is believed that it is too low throughout rather than too high in any 

 instance. 



INSURANCE RATES AND COST OF BUILDINGS. 



DISCUSSION OF TYPES. 



Table VIII (p. 20) gives important data relating to the different 

 types of warehouses now in use. It is particularly interesting to 

 notice the difference in the cost of constructing the same type of 

 warehouse in different States. A comparison of cost and insurance 

 rates of different types in the same State is also interesting. For 

 example, the ordinary brick warehouse costs more than a standard 

 warehouse with board ends and fire walls, and at the same time pays 

 a much higher insurance rate. Further, it is shown that those ware- 

 houses that are equipped with automatic sprinklers (Table IX) have 

 cost very little more than the others; yet they have a very much 

 lower insurance rate. The automatic sprinkler is costly, but the 

 reduction of insurance rates helps to offset the additional cost of 

 installation. The data in the tables show clearly that it is best to 

 construct standard warehouses and equip them with automatic 

 sprinklers. This unquestionably will effect a great saving. In 

 Georgia and North Carolina the insurance rate is reduced about 80 

 per cent by the use of sprinklers. It is decidedly interesting to 

 notice the lower cost of construction and the lower insurance rate 

 on the warehouses belonging to the cotton mills in each of the States 

 (Table X). From this it may be concluded that a great saving 

 could be effected by the erection and proper equipment of modern 

 warehouses conforming to the standards promulgated and recom- 

 mended by the underwriters associations. 



