SEA ISLAND COTTON INDUSTRY. • y 
CAROLINA CONDITIONS. 
To understand the present situation among the Carolina Sea Island 
farmers, it is well to start vath them in the days of their prosperity 
before the Civil War. Then they owned slaves and grew a fine grade 
of cotton, for which there was a ready sale generally at remunerative 
piices. They were prosperous and independent and as a rule shipped 
their cotton to factors in Charleston, who sold it on commission and 
paid the proceeds over to the farmer, or acted in the capacity of a 
bank for him and paid his checks when presented. After the war the 
negroes did not desert the plantations, but as a rule continued to work 
on the farms, and many are still working there, on the ''task" system 
of slavery days. In financing their business after the Civil War the 
planters naturally turned to their old friends, the factors, who con- 
tinued to advance them on open account the money and supplies 
necessaiy to make the crop. 
To make a long story short, the Civil War was only an interruption 
in the island farmer's business. He continued to raise cotton with 
free labor instead of slave, but otherwise there were but slight changes. 
Durmg the years from 1865 to 1880 the prices for Carolina cotton 
were profitable, and South Carolina raised more than one-third of 
the total Sea Island crop. Its average production was somewhat 
less than that of Florida, but was far in excess of that of Georgia. 
This lead over Georgia was maintained until 1889. During these 
years the importations of Egyptian cotton were almost negligible, 
and American markets set the price for extra long-staple cotton. 
As long as Charleston and Savannah continued to be the chief 
markets for extra staple cotton, prices remained reasonably satis- 
factory to the farmers. But with the rapid increase in the Georgia 
crop and with the great increase in the quantity of long staple grown 
in Egypt, these cities lost their prestige as long-staple markets 
and no longer fixed the price for this kind of cotton. With a change 
in buying methods, accompanied by the rise of interior markets for 
Sea Island, the price began to fluctuate between wide limits, but 
as a rule it has been much below the farmer's idea of value. This 
decline in price at Charleston did not bring about better methods of 
farming or any visible cheapening of production, but, on the con- 
trary, the cost of production has constantly tended upward over the 
Sea Island area, as it has done for other commodities over the rest 
of the Union, until now the cost of growing Sea Island is fidly 50 
per cent higher than it was in 1896. The increased cost and lower 
selling prices have resulted in most cases in the farmers becoming 
involved in debt to the factors. Indeed, it is commonly reported 
that fully 80 per cent of the Carolina Sea Island crop is now raised 
on money advanced by factors, and in many instances in the past 
three years each succeeding crop, instead of reducing, has added to 
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