PACKING AND MABKETING OF COTTON. 7 



balance of tradej and without which there would have been a balance 

 on the foreign side of the national ledger. 



EXTENT AND VALTIE OF THE COTTON CROP. 



In connection with the matters that will be discussed in this re- 

 port the reproduction of a paragraph from Census Bulletin No. 114, 

 recently issued, and which is a smnmary of the report on the produc- 

 tion of cotton for the year 1911, will be helpful: 



The quantity of cotton reported for the crop of 1911, with linters included 

 and round bales counted as half bales, is 16,109,349 running bales and is the 

 largest crop which the United States has ever produced. Expressed In gross 

 500-pound bales, the crop amounted to 16,250,276 bales, exceeding that of 1910 

 by 4,244,588 bales, or 35.4 per cent; that of 1909 by 5,934,894 bales, or 57.5 

 per cent; and that of 1904, the largest previous crop, by 2,570,322 bales, or 

 18.8 per cent. The average annual production of cotton for the five years, 

 1899 to 1903, was 10,055,003 bales, and for the five years 1907 to 1911, 12,706,823 

 b.ilea, an increase of 2,651,820 bales, or 26.4 per cent. Some idea of the possi- 

 bilities of cotton production in the United States can be gathered from the fact 

 that these figures represented in 1911 the production of an area which is only 

 about one-eleventh of the total area of the counties from which cotton ginned 

 was returned. 



Sea island cotton contributed less than 1 per cent to the crop 

 of 1911. The quantity of sea island produced was 119,293 bales, 

 which is the largest quantity for a number of years. The average 

 price of South Carolina sea island in 1911 was 23.73 cents; for that 

 grown in Georgia and Florida, 20.41. The falling off in the average 

 price of South Carolina is due to the comparatively low grade result- 

 ing from a severe storm early in the season, which damaged the crop. 

 The average price of Egyptian cotton at Boston for the six months 

 ended with March, 1912, was 18.75 cents. The average price of up- 

 land cotton ranged from 8.20 in 1902 to 14.69 in 1910. For the crop 

 of 1911 the average was 9.69 cents. 



A commodity of such enormous value to the industries of the 

 country and of such paramount importance in the maintenance of 

 the national credit in the settlement of international balances, surely 

 should be handled and safeguarded in consideration of its great 

 merit and value, and in accordance with the advanced methods that 

 insure increased efficiency in production and the fullest measure of 

 economy in the preparation and conveyance of products to market. 

 Cotton is the only important commodity which has resisted the 

 progress of the age and which continues to enter the market places 

 m the form and garb of days prior to the Civil War. This condition 

 is generally recognized and universally deplored. Efforts have been 

 made by individuals, by associations, and by State governments to 

 bring about the much-desired change, but these have not been at- 

 tended with even a small measure of success. The cultivation and 

 marketing of cotton concern so many persons, involve so many inter- 

 ests, and extend over so vast an area that the radical change de- 

 manded in present methods is perhaps beyond the power of individual 

 effort or community of such effort to accomplish. The vastness of 

 the industry, its supreme importance, its great intrinsic value, the 

 opportunities that are offered to speculators, and the large profits 



