Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1905 — OUR COTTON PRODUCTION. [ARTICLE]

OUR COTTON PRODUCTION.

Raised Enough Last Year to Clothe the People of the Earth. We raised enough cotton last year to iiake a suit of clothes for every man. woman and child upon earth, says Frank G. Carpenter. The crop is estimated at 12.000.(>tM) bales, or. in other words, at j.(HX),(M.KI,(H»U pounds. It will bring to the South $450.000,(X)<). More titan dCRXT.TMH'.fXIO worth of it will return it. ant'd gold dollars to Uncle Sam's pockets. Die balance will be used in our own factories, (north and south. We have now nioro'than 1,5(H) cotton mills, which irinually eat up about 2.0 90.00! MMX.) pounds of raw cotton They employ him Ireds of thousands of hands, and mak > a product which sells for more than KUMI.HOO.OOO per annum. This gives some idea of what cotton minus to the I nited States. It is one of our king crops itnd is the great money crop of the South. If it can be incrcas?d the whole country will be richer. If it falls oil we are that much the poorer. Within the last few years the Agricultural Department has had its scientists studying cotton. It has established experiment farms in different parts of the South. It has the best of the farmers making experiments of their own in some sections, and as a result it has made discoveries whereby it is said that the product can be increased fully 50 per cent without any additional expense except the cost of picking.