COTTON 
201 
YIELD OF COTTON 
(Continued) 
Year 
Production, 
Product per acre, 
in bales 
1900 
1901 
1902 
1903 
1904 
1905 
10,425,141 
10,701,433 
10,758,326 
10,123,886 
13,556,841 
10,697,013 
No one needs to be told that these fluctuations 
were due to natural causes. The same farmers 
tilled the same kind of land, used the same kinds 
of fertilizers, followed the same methods of culture, 
picked the fiber in the same manner, during all these 
years. There is some fluctuation in acreage, to 
be sure, but we are now referring to the yield per 
acre. The difference in yield between 1903 and 
1904, for instance, is thirty-seven pounds per acre, 
or a variation of more than twenty per cent. In 
this case acreage did not influence the yield, since 
it was greater the year the largest area was planted. 
Neither smaller productivity of the land nor the 
grower's carelessness in culture could possibly have 
influenced these results unless they acted in keeping 
the differences within closer limits. The same 
wide difference is noted when the years 1898 and 
1899 are compared, only here the variation is even 
greater — 51 pounds, or a difference of more than 
thirty per cent. 
This inability on the part of the cotton farmer 
to control his output acts immensely to his dis- 
advantage not only in estimating his yearly ex- 
penses, but in marketing his crops as well. 
Quite different is it with the man who buys cot- 
ton and manufactures it. 
