Cost $235 to Raise
Bale of Cotton in 1919, Says Dunlap. . . Correspondent Says $51.76 Per Pound Is
What Farmers Should Get for This Year’s Crop
Waxhaw R.F.D. No. 1, Sept. 29—Your correspondent has
compiled the following which shows the cost of raising cotton this year:
Rent of 20 acres of land at $7.50 per acre, $150
Three tons fertilizer at $60 per ton, $180
Hauling fertilizer from market, $15
Rent of one mule, $35
Feed for mule, $250
Wear of tools, $15
Wages for one plow hand at $50 per month, including board,
$600
Hoeing three times at $1 per acre, $60
Seed for planting (20 bushels at $1.25), $25
Picking 10,000 pounds seed cotton, $100
Hauling 6 ½ bales to gin at $2 per bale, $13
Ginning, at $3.50 per bale, $22
Bagging and ties, at $2 per bale, $22
Total, $1,478.75
Less 3¼ tons seed at $57, $184.75
Cost of 6 ½ bales lint cotton, $1,294
Cost per bale, $235.27
Cost per pound, $47.05
Therefore, figuring cost plus 10 per cent, we have $51.76,
which the farmer should be receiving for this year’s crop.
You will notice that I have figured 500 pounds seed cotton
or 162 ½ pounds lint per acre, which is more than this year’s estimate gives,
and is really more than the average yield; but wishing to be absolutely fair, I
have figured wages below actual cost and yields above actual in order that the
thing might not appear so ridiculous.
Dr. Poe said some weeks ago in the Progressive Farmer that
the reason why farmers could put cotton on the market for less than cost was
explained by the fact that they worked themselves without wages, worked their
wives without wages, and their children without wages when the children ought
to be in school learning better sense than to treat their offspring as their
daddies had treated them.
There is great big truth in the accusation, and when we
figure cost hereafter let’s figure some wages for the old woman and the kids.
What moral right is there in working children for nothing just because they are
our own kids? Think about it.
--Novus Homo
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