SEA ISLAND COTTON INDUSTRY. 13 
where it is profitablo to grow Sea Island in its native home. But 
until that time does arrive, it is safest for the Carolina Sea Island 
planters to rely upon home-raised foodstuffs and necessities. 
THE APPROACH OF THE BOLL WEEVIL. 
The prospect for a continuance of Sea Island cotton as the money 
crop, not only of the islands but of portions of the mainland of South 
Carolina, and of Georgia and Florida as well, is rendered even more 
uncertain by the approach of the boU weevil. At its present rate 
of progress tliis pest will overrun the entire Sea Island area in from 
five to eight years. Those best posted on the nature and habits of 
this pest are agreed in saying that it may put an end to the profitable 
production of Sea Island cotton. Over this entire area the winters 
are especially mild, the atmosphere is humid, and the hibernating 
quarters abundant, all factors tending to increase the number of 
weevils. As Sea Island cotton requires a long growing season and 
matures late in the fall, it will be especially liable to damage from 
the ravages of this insect. It is none too early for the farmers, espe- 
cially on the southwestern border of the belt, to begin looking for 
substitute crops for Sea Island. 
CONDITIONS IN GEORGIA AND FLORIDA. 
A study of the Sea Island situation in Georgia and Florida develops 
the fact that conditions are very similar in these two States, and 
they may therefore be considered together. Georgia perhaps grows 
its Sea Island somewhat more cheaply than Florida does, but the 
difference is so shght as to be negUgible. 
Florida was for many years the leading State in the number of 
bales produced, but since 1890 Georgia has taken the lead in pro- 
duction and now largely exceeds Florida and South Carohna com- 
bined. 
In all three States the crops are made chiefly by negro labor, but 
in Bulloch County, Ga., especially, and to a less extent all over the 
Georgia area, white labor is largely used. Here farmers owning 
1,000 acres or more go to the fields along with their wage hands and 
do the same work that they expect their employees to do, and see to 
it that they get the work for which they pay. About two tliirds of 
the cultivated land is planted in cotton, the other third being de- 
voted largely to corn, but some truck crops, especially watermelons, 
are grown. The farmers have corn and home-raised pork to sell 
and are self-confident and reasonably prosperous. They think 
that they can make a hving out of Sea Island at 20 cents per pound, 
but that there would be no profit to them at such a price, and that 
it would be preferable to grow Upland cotton at 10 cents per pound 
rather than Sea Island at 20 cents. 
