THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER
Tuesday, January 13, 1903.
SOMETHING HEW II? COTTON STATISTICS.
Prompter Service Than Ever Before
The Figures Show That 8,005,503
Bales of 1902 Cotton Were Ginned to
- Dec. 13, or 90.2 Per Cent, of the Crop
Monthly Ginning Reports to be
Secured This Year.
Washington, January 7. The Cen
sus Bureau report on the cotton
ginned from the 1902 crop up to and
including December 13 last, is 9,311,
835 bales, irrespective of shape or
weight, equal to 8,905,503, according
to the commercial counting. This
is 90.2 per cent of the crop. The re
port follows :
bales, und according to the canvass
ing agents 9,654,106 bales of an aver
age gross weight of 500 pounds. The
Census Office assumes no responsi
bility for the accuracy of these esti
mates. This report will be followed
by a third . and final report at the
end of the ginning season, about
March 16th, which will distribute the
crop by counties, segregate upland
and sea island cottons, and give
weights of bales.
In giving out the report Director
Merriam made the following state
ment : -
It seems important to again state,
in connection with these statistics of
the cotton crop of 1902, that in so
CO
a
States
and
Territories.
United States . .
Alabama
Arkansas
Florida
Georgia
Indian Territory
Kentucky
Louisiana
Mississippi
Missouri
North Carolina .
Oklahoma
South Carolina .
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
it 1-1
o
c 0
o.H o
30,194
3,899
2,510
284
5,046
428
-3
2,145
4,276
59
2,683
218
3,187
815
4,542
109
CD
gP
-t- o .
m m
o o
T3 J
O -O
' CO
9,311,835
896,944
768,861
54,443
1,376,850
372,042
y 1,027
670,485
1,135,557
39,185
517,068
163,190
863,989
272,135
2,167,472
12,537
1 m O g
JrJ T3
P3 tS G
O etc
1,057,771
65,168
149,715
6,598
66,714
52,831
150
159,908
225,150
3,115
28,232
29,568
44,754
34,409
188,968
2,491
o
it
fen
g
bo d P
00 ""
6 31
o 3"S
90.2
94.2
85.1
87.9
95.4
87.2
87.3
83.2
82.8
94.3
94.9
84.5
96.4
88.8
91.7
82.0
The above statistics of the quanti
ty of cotton ginned to December 13th
are expressed in bales as pressed at
the ginneries, irrespective of shape
or weight. In the total of 9,311,835
bales there are 812,661 round bales,
averaging from 240 to 300 pounds
each. Counting such round bales as
half bales, as is the custom in the
commercial community, the total gin
.ned to December 13th is 8,905,503.
By two of the most thorough canves
ses this season 32,528 ginneries, ac
tive and idle, have been located and
reported, of which number 30,194
have been operated for this crop. In
their December canvass the local spe
cial agents ascertained the quantity
of cotton ginned from the beginning
of the season to and including De
cember 13th and also secured from
each of the active ginners his esti
mate of the quantity of cotton to be
ginned by his establishment after
December 13th.
The estimate of the percentage of
the crop ginned is based on the esti
mates of 626 canvassing agents, who
were instructed to confine their esti
mates to the territories canvassed by
them and to the knowledge gained
therefrom. One estimate therefore
serves as a check against the other.
According to the estimate of the gin
ners 10.2 er cent of the crop re
mained to be ginned after December
13th, while, according to the estimate
of the canvassing agents the percent
age was 9.8. Applying these percen
tages and the general average bale
weight obtained from combining
round and square bales, the crop, ac
cording to the ginners, is 9,996,300
far as they relate to the bales of cot
ton ginned to December 13th. last,
they involve no guess work at any
point, no estimate by anybody, and
no uncertainty of any kind. They
represent the exact number of bales
of cotton that have passed through
the ginneries. All that has been done
by the Census Office is to make and
certify the additions. Anybody is at
liberty to examine the whole process
adopted by the Census Office in hand
ling these returns. The returns rep
resent the ginning operations of
every ginning establishment which
has handled any portion of the
growth of 1902.
The report is made at a time so
near the close of the ginning season
as to permit a very close approxi
mation of the growth of the year,
in 500-pound bales. It seems prob
able that the final report, to be issued
about March 16th next, will not show
a variation of 50,000 bales from the
estimates of the total crop which
aresumitted from two sources in
connection with the figures of cotton
ginned to December 13th.
This is the first time in the history
of the American cotton crop that
definite and exact knowledge of the
season's growth has been placed inJbacco belt, corn or wheat being alter
crop is now assigned, in the commer
cial estimates," to the production of
the previous year as the commercial
cotton year ends September 1st.
The second report will include all
cotton ginned up to and including
October 18th, 1903, the date of the
first report for 1902, enabling an ex
act comparison in the two seasons.
The third report will cover the cot
ton ginned up to and including No
vember 18th, a period of the utmost
importance to the growers and manu
facturers. The fourth report will
represent the cotton ginned to De
cember 13 th. The fifth will be the
final report.
It will be seen that this plan con
templates practically a monthly re
port during the ginning season of
1903. If it shall be found that still
more frequent reports are desirable,
the Census Office will be prepared
to make them for the crop of 1904. '
possession of the public at so early
a date, or within a date five months
as early. 4
The Census Office is already per
fecting plans for more frequent re
ports in connection with the crop of
1903. Its first report will cover all
the cotton ginned, of the year's
growth, up to and including Septem
ber 1st. This portion of each year's
Agricultural Conditions in Alamance
County.
The report of the party which
made the Alamance County Soil Sur
vey contains the following reference
to agricultural conditions in that sec
tion: The farms of Alamance County
vary in size from a few to more than
a thousand acres, the average being
125 acres; but since many farmers
own more than one farm, the average
number of acres to the landowner
considerably exceeds this average.
There is little doubt that smaller
farms with a more intensive system
of cultivation would prove more prof
itable than the present system, but
as long as land is worth only from
$3 to $40 an acre, according to loca
tion and improvements, with an aver
age price of from $8 to $10, the temp
tation to own a great deal ef it, and
to spread his energies over many
acres, is too great for the average
agriculturist to resist.
PRINCIPAL CROPS
The principal crops grown in the
area surveyed are wheat, corn, to
bacco, and oats, with cotton, clover,
grass, and cowpeas of secondary im
portance. On the Durham sandy
loam, which,' occupies the northeast
ern part of the county, tobacco, al
though formerly more extensively
grown, is still the principal product
and the money crop. A greater di
versity is now being practiced, and
the farmers are producing year by
year more of the commodities needed
for home use. Wheat, corn, and oats
are grown over the entire area, but
are best suited to, and more profita
bly raised on, the Cecil clay. The
best farmers practice crop rotation.
A two-year rotation is used in the to-
nated with the tobacco. Some think
a longer rotation better, and a three
and five year -rotation is more gener
ally practiced on the Cecil clay. In
the three-year rotation wheat is fol
lowed by clover and that by corn. The
five-year scheme provides for grass
and pasture two years, then wheat,
followed by corn and oats. Some of
the best farmers consider the latter
the most satisfactory rotation.
Trucking is unimportant here, as
there is little demand for truck prod
ucts in the home markets. Fruits
are grown and nearly every farmer
has an orchard, but very little fruit
is marketed. A majority of the
farms are owned and tilled by the
farmers themselves, who use im
proved machinery to some extent and
employ some day labor. Both white
and black labor is employed, at a
cost of from $8 to $10 a month and
board. In order to obtain the most
profitable results from negro labor,
it is necessary to have an experienced
man to direct the work.
THE TENANT SYSTEM
Much of the land is cultivated un
der the tenant system practiced to
some extent throughout the county.
The tenant usually pays a certain
percentage of the crop grown for
the use of the land, and the land
owner may furnish the stock and sub
sistence to his tenant, in which case
a larger part of the crop is reserved
hv tho. owner. Tn arrangements of
this sort the rent is customarily
about one-half. This system does not
tend toward the best husbandry of
tho Innri hut rnth or t r thfl nn nvfl-
tion of only the better parts of the
farms, leaving the poorer fields
abandoned and unimproved. There
are a few large and fertile farms in
the county which are managed or
tenanted by skilled farmers. These
. i ? 1 a i
laims are Demg improved contin
ually, besides returning good profits
to their owners.
A vast amount of commercial fer
tilizer is used in Alamance County.
It most cases a complete fertilizer is.
bought, but some of the best farmers
are experimenting and buying only
those constituents which they find
the soil needs, and which they can
not supply by plowing under legumi
nous crops.
FARM IMPROVEMENTS.
The farms in Alamance County
are not generally incumbered. Many
of them have neatly built and painted
frame buildings and good barns and
outhouses. As a rule, however, the
barns are small and inexpensive, and "
the farm implements comparatively
few and of old patterns. Fairly good
grades of farm animals are kept, and
here and there considerable interest
is taken in growing pedigreed stock.
A few small dairies were noticed.
While there are some fertile and
well-improved farms in the area, the
greater part of the land is not now
in a high state of cultivation, though
it is evident that conditions are im
proving. There are striking exam
ples of the results of abetter hus
bandry in the Cecil clay area. Farms
that a few years ago were poorly cul
tivated and comparatively unpro
ductive, with many washed and aban
doned fields, arfi to-dnv in a Inch
state of "cultivation, with all aban
doned places reclaimed and capable
of producing the highest yields of
the crops suited to that soil type.
The North Carolina Railwav. run-
--
ning through the center of the coun
ty in an eastward and westward di
rection, has been an important stim-