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Lancaster. Enterprise!
* Vol. XIII. LANCASTER, S.C., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER i6, 1903 No 39
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\ J WILL SOON BE HERE j;
J And We Are Going to |
} Break Record Selling 11
) Goods Before Be Comes. 11
iWe Have Just Gotten in Some ?$< # j
New Goods for J;
Christmas Trade
( Our Stock is New Jji
1 And complete in every department, and if V;
1 you are going to need anything before Xmas Vl
t 111 f* A * M mm J lii
. > | we uan save you Money ;
? Come to see us and we will make you happy. B
| T? 11
? xvespecnuny, ? |
v | Lancaster Mercantile Company |
$ M?
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4
rhe Real Menc
theC
By DANIE
Through the thoughtful kindm
f New York, formerly of Chestei
eaders the following interesting
ssue of the Now York Press, wri
:org broker who bulled cotton o
he early part of the present year
The present serious condition
n the cotton markets of the world
nd the danger threatening the
extile industry of the United
tates, of England, France, Germany,
Russia, Switzerland and
ipain, can be traced to only one
ause?the sterilization orimpov
rishment of the cotton Beed.
lerious as is the situation today,
nd high as prices are, the situaion
will be more serious and the
rices higher and higher each
ear until measures are taken by
irhich proper seed can be planted
or the growth of the cotton crop.
Paradoxical as it may seem,the
urtailment of the cotton crop is
natural result of the growth ot
he cotton seed industry. A quar
er 01 a century ago me cotton
eed was the bane of the cotton
danter. lie had great dilliculty
n getting rid of his surplus seed,
t was burned, cast into the rivers,
ised to till gullies and hollows
iid hauled away at no little extense.
But since the discovery
if the uses ot cotton seed oil,coton
seed hulls and cotton seed
neal, the demand for the seed
ias grown to great proportions,
'lie south is dotted with cotton
eed oil mills, and what was once
egarded as refuse now brings
learly $100,000,000 a year to the
outh.
This would be a magnificent
sset wore it not. for the tact that
he oil mills demand the heaviest
nd richest of the seed, leaving
nly the poorest for the planter
o put hack in the ground for the
ilanting of his next crop. The
ierceness of competition is such
uui the prices paid for^eed are
o large that within the last five
>r six years the planters have
mpoverished their seed supply
o the utmost limit. Poor seed
>rings a poor cotton yield. InTensed
acreage is no remedy,
?vi n if it were possible under
resent conditions to extend the
creage much beyond its present
units.
Thoughtful men of the south
c no prospect of a change in the
nunediate future. Surely none
an he expected as long as the
pinners have to scramble for
otton to keep their mills going
nd the cotton seed mills pay
op notch prices for their supplies.
The statistics of the 1 apt six or
even years show more conclu
ively than anything I could say
iow important a part ihisimpov
rishment ot the cotton seed is
(laying in cotton atTairs. Since
897 the acreage planted to coton
. 'lie United States has been
nereased from 24,000,000 to ap>roxima'ely
28,000,000 acres,
fet the yield has steadily dereased.
In 1897 the south raised
1,200,000 hales of cotton on an
creage of 24,000,000. This seaon,
with an acreage of 28,000, 00.
the government's estimate
s 9,902,000 bales. Take the
iverage yield an acre year by
(
ice m
otton Situation
L J. SULLY.
ass of our friend, Mr. J. T. Marion
, we are enabled to lay before our
article, which appeared in a recent
itten by Daniel J. Sullv. the New
n its merits from 8^ to 10 cents
lie says :
year and the deterioration is
shown more convincingly.
In 1897-98 the yield of lint
per aero planted was 224 pounds.
In 1898-99, it was 232; in 189900,
210; in 1900-01, 211; in
1901-02, 188; in 1902-03, 188;
in 1903-04 (government estimate),
170.
But even these figures do not
show the real decrease in the
yield per acre. In 1897 and 1898
cotton was extremely cheap, and
what represented hundreds of
thousands of bales of lint were
lett unpicked in the field, because
the planters did not think it
would pay for the picking. This
season, however, there isn't a
cotton plant in the south that
hasn't been picked of every ounce
of its product.
The world absolutely requires
10,700,000 bales of cotton this
season. It could uso 12,000,000
1. _ l . i .1 1 1 '
uaies ana mere wouia no no
surplus.
Cotton is the most valuable
money crop of the world today.
It is used in more of tho world's
staples than any other of tho
earth's products. Its uses are
constantly widening, and yet we
are face to face with tho condition
of a constantly shortening
crop. It is idle to charge the
big advance in prices to manipulation
of the market, to
weather conditions in the cotton
belt, to lack of moisture,
lateness of planting or to any
other of the stock causes.
1 Every student of the cotton
1 world who gives serious consideration
to the subject will come
) back to the basic trouble of tho
I impoverishment of the seed.
This subject is of far greater
importance than the average
man realizes. It is c f as groat
importance to the North as 10
the South, not only because of
the manufacturing Industrie-: of
the north that are dependent
upon the cotton crop, but because
everybody wears cotton
goods and because the iiuancial
world depends upon the cotton
crop to maintain the financial
parity between this country and
Europe. Without our cotton
the money market of the United
States would be in a sad way.
Cotton bills are payable in gold,
and it is through the payment
for cotton exported to Europe
that we maintain our gold balance
with the rest of the world.
i uu trumiwi iuu?\ iur uiiy
change in tho South until the
danger from the impoverishment
of the cotton seed is
brought home to the planter.
At present ho is blind to this
menace. The present crop will
bring to him at least $160,000,000
more than any other crop
he ever raised. That would
seom to prove that ho is favored
1 by fortune. The crop of next
(Concluded on 8th page.)