20* 



the size of the land that can be tilled by one draught animal bet- 

 ween the 5 th of May and the 1st of August. 

 This is estimated at 20 bouws. 



The keeping of one horse, with the necessary implements, har- 

 ness and insurance is estimated at /305 annually of which /135 

 go to the account of the planting. 



For ploughing fl 60 and for weeding and banking! /138 are 

 paid per 20 bouvvs. 



The produce of 930 lbs. of raw cotton per bouw (including seed, 

 waste, etc.) is equivalent to 310 lbs. of cleaned cotton, then the 

 cost of harvesting amount to /183 per 20 bouws. 



If manure is used one reckons an extra expense of y" 7. 79 per 

 bouw, th is for 20 bouvvs fl 55.80. Rent and administration cost 

 /6 56 per bouw, or per 20 bouws /131.2c. The total cost of pro- 

 duction is thus for 20 bouvvs 903 guilders, or x 45 guilders per 

 bouw or per lb. of raw cotton 4.84 cts. or per lb. of clean cotton 

 14.5 cts. 



This refers to the cotton territories to the east of the Mississippi. 

 For the west where the cost of production is cheaper, the cost 

 price of one lb. of clean cotton is put at 14.2 cts. 



To this must be added the cost of cleaning and packing, but this 

 is largely covered by the value of the cotton seed. 



Fifty-four per cent, of the total cost come from the labour, which, 

 compared with other industries, is very high, and as this figure is 

 about 27 % in the cotton mills, the conclusion must be drawn, that 

 labour in the cotton industry of America is a prominent factor. 



It is interesting to compare with these figures the cost of pro- 

 duction in Egypt and India. 



For Egypt these amount to fl 7 0.63 per bouw, or, with an aver- 

 age production of 600 lbs. per bouw, 28.3 cts. per lb., about four 

 times as much again as in America. 



The Egyptian planter would not be able to exist, if his harvest 

 per bouw were not better and his sale-price moreover higher. 



In the North West Provinces of British India, the cost of produc- 

 tion arrtounts approximately to /31.76 per bouw. The average 

 produce of cleaned cotton is 190 lbs. per bouw, the cost of produc- 

 tion therefore amounts to 16.6 cents per lbs. 



We will here shortly sketch those cotton-growing states of 

 America, which specially grow 7 Sea-Island cotton. 



On the sea- islands of South Carolina the field work is exclusively 

 done by natives, of whom most are employed in farming. A large 

 portion of them are owners of farms, but a still larger portion rent 

 the ground, while, land is given to the actual workers in exchange 

 for their labour. 



The greatest area of land, actually cultivated with cotton by one 

 owner, is not more than 57 bouws. 



The white farmers have usually not more than 17 bouws planted 

 with cotton. Such an area always necessitates their being owners 

 of large stretches of land, as they have to pay for 2 days work 

 in the week with 3-4 bouws ; for which they can then have about 

 2 bouws of land, planted with cotton, so that if they want to 



