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AGRICULTURE 223 and even children, as well as by men; but it is tedious, The negro population of the towns and villages of the cotton and requires care. The picking season will average 100 country is usually available for a considerable share in Picking. day.s- ^ difficult to get the hands to work cotton - picking. There is in the cotton States a rural until the cotton is fully opened, and it is hard population of over 7,000,000, more or less occupied in to induce them to pick over 100 lb a day, though cotton-growing, and capable, at the low average of 100 lb some expert hands are found in every cotton plantation a day, of picking daily nearly 500,000 bales. It is evident, who can pick twice as much. The loss resulting from therefore, that if this number could work through the careless work is very serious. The cotton falls out easily whole season of 100 days, they could pick three or four or is dropped. The careless gathering of dead leaves times as much cotton as the largest crop ever made. and twigs, and the soiling of the cotton by earth or by The comparative figures in Table XVII., compiled from the natural colouring matter from the bolls, injure the the reports of the bureau of statistics of the Treasury Departquality. It has been commonly thought that the produc- ment, show the number of bales of cotton exported to each tion of cotton in the south is limited by the amount that foreign country in 1889, as compared with the years 1898 and 1899. All bales are reduced to the uniform weight of 500 can be picked, but this limit is evidently still very remote. pounds each. Table XVII.—Exports of Cotton from United States to Foreign Countries? In Bales of 500 pounds. Year ending 30th. June Year ending 30th June Year ending 30th June 1889. 1898. 1899. Countries. Bales. Value. Bales. Value. Bales. Value. Austria-Hungary 5,610 $275,275 35,614 r,724 57,127 $1,576,175 Belgium 147,807 7,556,687 161,942 4,809,609 129,525 3,599,471 Denmark 24,741 732,810 39,249 1,078,300 France. 400,196 20,174,839 842,038 24,599,724 803,406 21,946,691 Germany 660,756 32,308,593 1,858,524 54,886,245 1,728,975 47,346,679 Italy 131,068 6,460,413 387,581 11,468,025 417,353 11,652,768 X ether lands 44,354 2,188,771 43,509 51,621 1,292,788 1,401,040 Portugal 18,835 588,923 612,132 21,627 Russia. 144,036 7,506,201 103,825 3,133,758 95,011 2,796,793 Spain. 181,533 9,200,998 263,648 8,180,970 248,635 7,194,100 Sweden and Norway 8,717 420,412 25,613 23,624 744,287 703,503 2,940,800 146,605,505 3,532,101 105,853,614 3,609,444 99,709,352 United Kingdom. Rest of Europe 9,547 475,182 Dominion of Canada 61,143 2,980,556 122,495 3,961,586 98,230 2,994,674 Mexico. 33,803 1,607,395 42,433 1,321,473 36,130 1,043,473 West Indies (French) 17 653 5 187 China. 11,302 370,670 4,060 131,734 East Indies (British) 297 9,130 9 308 Hong-Kong. 1,800 72,000 56 1,710 Japan. 2,341 47 224,214 7,428,226 182,734 5,774,784 All other countries 216 12,102 Total. 4,769,633 237,775,270 7,700,529 230,442,215 7,546,821 209,563,874 From the Year Book, U.S. Department of Agriculture, for 1899. Except in the cases of Belgium and Russia, the increase in These figures certainly show a very large increase in the exports has been very large, in some cases the amount being more consumption of cotton, the increase in all countries in 1898-99 than double what it was eight or ten years earlier. Notwithstand- over the previous year amounting to 1,056,000 bales, of which ing a net decrease of 153,708 bales in 1899 as compared with 1898, more than one-half was in the United States, while the increase these two years are conspicuous as having recorded the largest ex- in all countries since 1890-91 amounts to 3,476,000 bales. In ports of cotton in the history of the United States (see Table XVI.). 1898-99 this increase, as compared with the previous year, The extremely low prices in 1897-98 and 1898-99 reduced the ex- amounts to 591,000 bales, as against 208,000 in all continental port values $7,333,055 in the former, and $28,211,396 in the European countries, 156,000 in India, and 87,000 in Great Britain. latter year, as compared with those of 1889, although the number Since 1890-91 the United States shows an increase of 1,186,000 of bales exported in 1898 was 2,930,896, and in 1899 was 2,777,188 bales, as compared with 1,205,000 in all continental European greater than in 1889. countries, 373,000 in India, and 135,000 in Great Britain. While there are no available statistics showing the annual crops Prices of all products entering the world’s markets tend to of all the cotton-producing countries, the consumption of the fluctuate less and less with the development of transportation, mills in Great Britain, the Continent of Europe, the United the telegraph, the crop reporting system, and the publication of States, India, Japan, Canada, Mexico, and other countries fairly market news. Present prices are raised or lowered in anticipaapproximates the world’s production. The following statistics tion of higher or lower prices in the future. This is well (Table XVIII.) taken from Dr Thomas Neilson’s Annual Review illustrated by the prices of cotton shown in Table XIX. of the Cotton Trade, issued in Liverpool, 1st November 1899, The range of prices was higher and the fluctuations vere more show the number of bales of cotton consumed by the mills of the violent in the decades 1821-30 and 1831-40, than during any world from 1890-91 to 1898-99, inclusive :— other decades except that of the Civil War (1861-70). There has been a gradual diminution in the range of prices, the fluctuations Table XVIII.—The World’s Consumption of Cotton, being less during the decade 1881-90 than at any other period. 1890-91 to 1898-99. The greatly increased crops since 1890 have depressed the price very much, causing a slightly increased range. But the tendency In bales of 500 pounds. is towards a permanently narrow range of fluctuations. Year Great Continent United The use of improved implements, the introduction of better All other Total. ended Britain. India. of Europe. States. methods ot cultivation, the establishment of a more economical Countries. Sept. 30. system of labour, and especially the use of fertilizers, have 1891 3,384,000 3,631,000 2,367,000 924,000 150,000 10,456.000 cheapened considerably the cost of cotton production—exactly 1892 3,381,000 3,640,000 2,576,000 914,000 160,000 10,471,000 how much, however, it is impossible to say. Until recent years 1893 2,866,000 3,692,000 2,551,000 918,000 10,247,000 no accurate records of the cost of cotton production were kept. 1894 3,233,000 3,848,000 2,264,000 959,000 220,000 250,000 10,554,000 1895 3,250,000 4,030,000 2,743,000 1,074,000 300,000 11,397,000 So long as cotton brought a high price, the planters were extrava1896 3,276,000 4,160,000 2,572,000 1,105,000 419,000 11,532,000 gant in their methods of culture, and the factors and transporta1897 3,224,000 4,368,000 2,738,000 1,004,000 488,000 11,822,000 tion companies excessive in their charges. The low prices of 1898 3,432,000 4,628,000 2,962,000 1,141,000 713,000 12,876,000 cotton which have prevailed for a number of years have taught 1899 3,519,000 4,836,000 3,553,000 1,297,000 727,000 13,932,000 farmers how to make cotton more economically and how to get