Where Cotton is Grown and Spun and Why
We have seen (page 5) that the world's cotton crop is produced chiefly by
the United States, with 56%; India, with 17%; China, with 13-1/2%; Egypt
and Russia with 4-1/2%, the remaining 4-1/2% being made up by Brazil,
Mexico, Peru, Turkey, Persia, Japan, and several other countries.
Primitive Methods of
Growing in India
India is the first country wherein, so far as we have record, the growing
of cotton reached the stage of an industry. There conditions are almost
ideal, apparently, for the production of a great crop; yet, for many
years the crop was a small one, and was utilized locally in the domestic
manufacture of the light clothing worn by the people. Nothing remotely
resembling the present modern factory system developed during all the
thousands of years that the Indians had the field practically to
themselves. The plant grown in India for a long time produced a short,
uncertain staple, difficult to gin and still more difficult to spin. The
greater part of the cotton growing districts are still given over to the
short staple varieties (about 3/4 inch) but in recent years certain
varieties of Egyptian and American cotton have been produced with some
success. About 20,000,000 acres are given over to the culture of the
plant, but the methods used are to a great extent primitive in the
extreme. Most of the crop, being unsuited to the needs of the British
spinners, is either manufactured in Indian mills, of which the number is
constantly growing, or exported to Japan. Before the war, Germany was a
large consumer of Indian cotton.
The figures given as representing the Chinese crop probably are not any
more accurate than the usual statistical figures concerning China. The
Chinese are still largely in the domestic system of manufacture, and much
of their crop--probably a larger proportion than in India--is spun and
woven in the neighborhood where it is grown, without ever appearing in
statistical tables. The methods of growing are equally primitive. The
fiber is short, and the mills of the country import more raw cotton,
yarn, and textiles than they export.
The Growing Importance
Of Egyptian Staples
The Egyptian crop is one of the most interesting, both in the methods
of culture, and in the product. From the point of view of
statistics--remembering the uncertainty of the size of the Chinese
crop--Egypt is the third cotton growing country of the world. This is
the more interesting because it was not until about 1820 that Egypt was
considered as a source of supply. The present area, under extremely
intensive cultivation, is about 1,800,000 acres, and nine-tenths of this
is in the Nile delta.
Climatic conditions are radically different from those of the United
States. Little rain falls during the growing season, but an elaborate
system of irrigation provides a sufficient and probably more satisfactory
water supply, insomuch as the quantity of water can be regulated, and
there is little danger of either too much or too little moisture. The
regions where the soil is not composed exclusively of the black delta
mud, but is a mixture of sand and mud, produce the best crops. The land,
after being plowed, is thrown up into ridges about three feet apart.
Channels for water are formed at right angles to the ridges. The seeds,
before being sown, in March, are thoroughly soaked, and after the
seedlings appear there is frequent hoeing and watering. The total water
is equivalent to a rainfall of about 35 inches. There is little
cultivation in the American fashion, hand labor being employed almost
exclusively. The result of all this intensive effort is an abundant crop
of long-stapled cotton with an extremely strong fiber, bringing in the
open market a price second only to that of the American Sea Island
variety. Much of the Egyptian cotton is used in the manufacture of
hosiery and other knit goods, sateens, sewing thread, etc., but recently
it has also been found to be exceedingly well fitted for the manufacture
of the fabric used in pneumatic tires, and for the duck or filter cloth
used in such industries as the refining of sugar.
[Illustration: _Pickers in Delta Field_]
Russian cotton, so-called, is really grown largely in Turkestan though a
small amount is produced in the Southern Caucasus. The culture has been
under way since very early times, but had little more than local
significance until about 1875 when the Russian Government took steps to
foster it, distributing American seed of the Upland variety, importing
the necessary equipment, and providing instructors, frequently Americans.
Railroads to handle the crop were built, and, with all this favorable
assistance, progress was rapid. About one-third of the cotton used in the
Russian mills up to the time of the war was grown on Russian soil, the
remainder being brought largely from the United States.
The American Crop
As the World's Basis
But the bulk of the world's supply is the cotton grown in the United
States. The price for American Upland Cotton governs the price of the
other varieties. The acreage devoted to the cultivation of the cotton
crop in the United States is approximately 34,000,000. The increase since
1839, when census figures covering this point were first obtained, has
been about seventeen fold. The 1916 acreage, of the various States,
together with figures giving the value of the crop and the comparative
rank, is here given:
================+==========+==============+========+===============
| | _Gross | | _Crop Value
| |Equivalent 500|_Approx-| Including
_States_ | _Acreage_| Pound Bales | imate | Seed
| | Exclusive of |Percent-| and Linters_
| | Linters_ | age_ |
----------------+----------+--------------+--------+---------------
Alabama | 1,977,000| 517,890 | 4.6 | $86,940,000
Arizona | | 21,737 | 0.1 | 6,300,000
Arkansas | 2,740,000| 973,752 | 8.6 | 164,840,000
California | | 57,826 | 0.5 | 9,410,000
Florida | 183,000| 37,858 | 0.3 | 10,260,000
Georgia | 5,195,000| 1,883,911 | 16.7 | 322,600,000
Louisiana | 1,454,000| 638,729 | 5.7 | 102,260,000
Mississippi | 2,788,000| 905,554 | 8.0 | 152,270,000
Missouri | 345,000| 60,831 | 0.5 | 10,100,000
North Carolina | 1,515,000| 617,989 | 5.5 | 103,940,000
Oklahoma | 2,783,000| 959,081 | 8.5 | 150,270,000
South Carolina | 2,837,000| 1,236,871 | 10.9 | 207,220,000
Tennessee | 882,000| 240,525 | 2.1 | 40,130,000
Texas |11,092,000| 3,125,378 | 27.7 | 495,590,000
Virginia | 50,000| 18,777 | 0.2 | 3,140,000
All Other States| | 5,666 | 0.1 | 970,000
+----------+--------------+--------+--------------
Totals |33,841,000| 11,302,375 | 100.00 | 1,866,240,000
================+==========+==============+========+==============
There are generally speaking, two kinds of cotton produced in the United
States--Upland cotton, and Sea Island cotton. The former makes up the
great bulk of the crop, the relative percentages in 1917 being 99.2 and
.8.
The Constant Search
For Long Staples
A few years ago the terms short-staple and Upland were practically
interchangeable, but the great demand for long staple, chiefly from the
manufacturers of thread and of pneumatic tire fabrics has led to a
successful attempt to grow the longer fibers in the Upland districts, so
that now more than a million bales annually are being produced in the
Upland districts of cotton with a staple length of 1-1/8 inches and more.
The world's total production of long staple is in the neighborhood of
2,250,000 bales. Egypt is the chief producer outside the United States,
her product being approximately 1,000,000 bales of 500 pounds every year.
Although the product is small, the best Sea Island produced in the United
States grows upon the small islands off the coast of South Carolina. The
long-staple Upland is grown chiefly in the Mississippi delta, where the
product is called "Peeler," "benders," etc., though the percentage of
long-staple produced elsewhere is steadily increasing. The success of
certain Arizona growers in producing long-staple from Egyptian seed is
being watched with great interest. More than 3,000 bales came from this
source in 1916, the fiber averaging 1-1/2 inches in length. There has
recently been developed there, the new and important Pima variety, which
is superior to the native Egyptian cotton, being both longer and whiter,
and the growers are now planting Pima almost exclusively.
The following table, taken from the Encyclopedia Brittanica, gives the
comparative length of staple of the more important varieties of cotton.
The order in which they are given represents, roughly, their relative
commercial value:
_Length of Staple
Sea Island Cotton in Inches_
Carolina Sea Island 1.8
Florida Sea Island 1.8
Georgia Sea Island 1.7
Barbados Sea Island 2.
Egyptian Cottons
Yannovitch 1.5
Abassi 1.5
Good Brown Egyptian (Mitafifi) 1.2
American Cotton
Good Middling Memphis 1.3
Good Middling Texas 1.0
Good Middling Upland 1.0
Indian Cottons
Fine Tinnevelly .8
Fine Bhaunagar 1.0
Fine Amraoti 1.0
Fine Broach .9
Fine Bengal .9
Fine ginned Sind .8
Good ginned Kumta 1.0
The table of the number of spindles in each country in the world, given
on page 6, gives some idea of the relative position of the United States
in the field of cotton manufacturing. We have seen how the English
industry, having the prior start, grew to imposing proportions and helped
to bring about a change almost as great in its effects as the French
Revolution, which was occurring at almost the same time. British
supremacy in cotton manufacturing has never been truly challenged, but
there has been an appreciable growth in several other countries, and in
Germany and Japan, at least, the recent development has been little short
of phenomenal. New figures will probably show that in the future Japan
will be the chief competitor of England and the United States for a share
of the cotton trade of the world.
[Illustration: _Fall River, Massachusetts_]
The Home Market
Created An Industry
The chief factor in the growth of the American industry was probably not
the nearness of the source of supply, cheap fuel or labor, nor any of
these factors which operated in the case of England, such as climate,
geographical position, and shipping control, but more than anything else
the presence of a market close at hand which grew so rapidly, more
rapidly indeed than the industry could grow to meet it. Aided to some
extent by an import tariff, the manufacturers have weathered some short
periods of depression, but in the main the industry has grown in direct
ratio to the growth of the country.
[Illustration: _A typical Southern mill_]
New England As Home
Of American Spinning
The cotton mill, as we have seen, early chose New England as its
domicile. Mills are scattered more or less throughout the entire region,
but there are several localities which stand out beyond all others, and
almost deserve the title they have acquired as the centers of the
industry. Premier place for a long time was held by Fall River, and even
now the race between that city and New Bedford is strong, with the lead
slightly in favor of the former city.
Bristol County, Mass., in which these two centers, and Taunton, are
located, Providence, R. I., and Middlesex County, Mass., together
contained 10,086,686 spindles in 1917, or 29.5% of the country's total of
34,221,252.
The growth in this one locality is due probably to the advantages which
come with centralization, as well as to the natural advantages they
possessed. These latter, which include particularly water power and a
moist climate, are not as important now, With steam power and mechanical
humidifiers as they were a generation ago.
In the Middle Atlantic States, the number of plants and the spindlage
have remained about stationary over a long period of years, and are even
showing a tendency to decrease. Small weaving establishments which buy
their yarn are particularly numerous around Philadelphia, and there are
large cotton duck mills in and near Baltimore.
Mills in the Midst of
Cotton Plantations
It has been in the South, however, that the growth of the cotton
manufacturing industry in the last few decades has been most phenomenal.
In 1860 there were 324,052 spindles in the cotton growing States compared
with 8,632,087 in New England. In 1917, the figures were: Northern
States (including Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and
Vermont), 19,835,662 spindles devoted to the spinning of cotton
exclusively; Southern States (including Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana,
Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas,
and Virginia), 14,292,918 spindles devoted to cotton exclusively.
The census figures do not give the number of spindles in each city except
when the confines of the city and of the county happen to coincide. But
the appended table is presented as showing the spindlage of counties
having more than 100,000 spindles devoted to the spinning of cotton.
About 1880, the Southerner saw the opportunity that awaited him when he
should manufacture his own cotton. At that time he was consuming only
188,748 bales, while New England took 1,129,498. In ten years, he was
utilizing more than half a million bales, while New England had just
passed the million and a half figure. In 1905, the South consumed
2,140,151 bales, while New England had climbed to only 1,753,282. The
figures are Scherer's, who points out that the race was won in
twenty-five years. However, as competition with the South increased, New
England, following the earlier lead of Old England, has tended always to
produce a finer and finer quality of cloth, leaving the coarser grades of
sheeting, drills and ducks to the Southern mills. Thus, while the South
is consuming an ever larger proportion of the cotton crop, she is still
far from receiving for her product the money that comes to the New
Englander, who with a higher grade of labor and greater variation of
output is constantly catering, with dress fabrics and fine stuffs of
various kinds, to a discriminating well-to-do patronage.
_Spindles
_County_ (Number)_
Bristol, Mass. 7,294,221
Providence, R. I. 1,709,713
Middlesex, Mass. 1,082,752
Hillsborough, N. H. 907,245
Spartanburg, S. C. 831,476
Windham, Conn. 780,232
Worcester, Mass. 766,110
Greenville, S. C. 758,144
Essex, Mass. 645,020
Hampden, Mass. 642,096
Gaston, N. C. 603,102
Kent, R.I. 594,380
Anderson, S. C. 582,464
Berkshire, Mass. 521,408
New London, Conn. 512,170
Oneida, N. Y. 419,255
York, Me. 408,600
Androscoggin, Me. 402,471
Muscogee, Ga. 346,740
Pittsylvania, Va. 346,320
Union, S. C. 330,656
Strafford, N. H. 318,160
Cabarrus, N. C. 315,810
Mecklenburg, N. C. 272,198
Guilford, N. C. 262,862
Richland, S. C. 244,660
Essex, N. J. 232,291
Albany, N. Y. 226,564
Madison, Ala. 225,168
Greenwood, S. C. 217,744
Pickens, S. C. 211,320
Bristol, R. I. 210,488
Hampshire, Mass. 198,792
York, S. C. 198,404
Fulton, Ga. 198,016
Aiken, S. C. 193,989
Laurens, S. C. 193,312
Richmond, Ga. 192,914
Rockingham, N. C. 191,810
Durham, N. C. 172,532
Newberry, S. C. 168,040
Chambers, Ala. 164,000
Cherokee, S. C. 163,820
Kennebec, Me. 163,815
Alamance, N. C. 153,176
Knox, Tenn. 152,100
Lancaster, S. C. 151,768
Richmond, N. C. 149,748
Chester, S. C. 146,692
Stanley, N. C. 146,000
Rutherford, N. C. 143,400
Calhoun, Ala. 138,048
Troup, Ga. 136,204
Floyd, Ga. 126,264
Cleveland, N. C. 125,182
Cumberland, Me. 124,392
Spalding, Ga. 121,252
Talladega, Ala. 115,448
Philadelphia, Pa. 114,547
Merrimack, N. H. 113,316
Davidson, N. C. 110,564
Baltimore City. 106,008
Halifax, N. C. 104,116
Hall, Ga. 102,588
The wealth of the world--at least up to the time of the Great War--was
constantly increasing and while there is little likelihood that the
demand for the coarser grades of goods will fall off, the need for finer
stuffs, not only in the United States, but abroad, is constantly growing.
The greatest development of the South is probably still to come.
The locations of the world's cotton markets have been dictated by the
location of the growing fields and the manufacturing centers. Thus we
find that the great raw cotton markets of the United States are in New
York and New Orleans. In Europe they are at Liverpool, Bremen and Havre.
Because of conditions imposed by the German government, the Bremen market
is largely dependent upon New York and Liverpool. The other great world
market is that of Alexandria, which, although it handles but a
comparatively small part of the world's crop, is important on account of
the quality of the staple which makes up the Egyptian bale.
The two chief American markets, New York and New Orleans, are sharply
differentiated. The New Orleans market is a true trader's market. The
great bulk of the sales made on the New Orleans floor are bona-fide
sales, in which cotton actually changes hands. The New York market on the
other hand is a merchants' and manufacturers' market, in which business
transactions are protected against loss by the purchase or sale of
"futures", though, of course, there is always a large amount of
speculating. Delivery is rarely demanded. The function of the exchange,
therefore, is largely that of insurance. The intricacies of this market
will be discussed later.