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, 11 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.
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 12 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:
| States | Acreage |
Gross Equivalent 500 Pound Bales Exclusive of Linters |
Approximate Percentage |
Crop Value Including Seed and Linters |
| 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, 13 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:
Sea Island Cotton | Length of Staple 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.
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 14 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.
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 15 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, 16 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.
| County |
Spindles (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.