The farmers sow cotton when they plant corn or beans during the month of July and the crop of cotton begins to be gathered at the end of the month of November or the beginning of December. This depends upon the time when rains permit the sowing. The crops of corn or beans pay the expense of the whole cultivation of the cotton and the only outlay in the raising of cotton is the gathering. It is estimated that the production of cotton in Venezuela in normal times, excepting droughts, locusts, etc., amounts to 7,000,000 kilograms in the seed. There is an average of 28.5% cotton in the seed, therefore, 1,995,000 kilograms of seeded cotton are produced. The cotton seeds which were sown in the month of June, 1918, began to give a crop in the month of December of the same year, and the gathering of said crop ended in the month of March, 1919. It has been estimated that this crop produced a total of 1,995,000 kilograms of seeded cotton grown in the various states of the Venezuelan Federal Union.
The price of cotton in Venezuela during the last eight years (1911-1919) has fluctuated between Bolivars 70 to 150 per 46 kilograms. The last price of 150 Bs. per 46 kilograms was the one paid at the end of the 1919 crop, due to the high price of cotton in the United States, the country producing the greatest amount of cotton in the world.
Since Venezuela produced in 1919 a total of 1,995,000 kilograms of seeded cotton which were sold at an average of 3.25 Bs. per kilogram, the total value of the Venezuelan cotton crop amounted to Bs. 6,483,750 ($1,296,750 American gold).
Venezuelan cotton is classified as Cotton No. 2. (Egypt produces cotton No. 1.) Due to the difference in seeds, soil, cultivation on a small scale, etc., Venezuelan cotton is mixed in such a manner that a standard quality of uniform length of fibre is not obtainable in a given lot. For this reason the price of Venezuelan cotton is always somewhat less than that of the medium class cotton from the United States.
The State of Zulia produces the best quality of Venezuelan cotton, due to the length of its fibre and because it is more advantageous when manufactured, but as the cloth industry in Venezuela is not intensive enough to warrant the classification of fibres, this advantage is not noticeable in the aggregate cotton trade of Venezuela. The cotton plant gives but one crop a year and requires to be replanted every year. At the present time it is estimated that $200,000 are invested in the cultivation of this product.
TONKA BEANS
These beans, which are exported from Venezuela on a large scale, have the shape of a large black almond and give out a delicious perfume. When dry their peculiar perfume develops still more and it is used as an odorous basis to make high grade perfumes, and to flavor tobacco. The bean is a natural product and needs no cultivation, as a general rule; it is gathered in the Tonka forests existing in the Amazon territory and the District of Cedeno, in the Venezuelan Guianas. Tonka beans are a staple of great value in the regions watered by the Orinoco River and its tributaries, and almost the entire crop of Venezuelan Tonka beans are exported by the way of Ciudad Bolívar.
The gathering process formerly in use brought about the destruction of the trees, but the Venezuelan Government has taken the necessary measures to prevent the trees from being felled as was formerly the case. The large trees now in existence are being protected perfectly. In the year 1913 Venezuela exported more than half a million kilograms of tonka beans having a commercial value of $727,800. One or several well organized companies with the necessary capital at their command would derive great profit from such exploitation.[10]
[10] Agricultural Year Book of Venezuela, 1913.