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Show -i KH?9 . J "IIBI J.II 1 II i)iWW llf w " 111 " " " 1 mwmmmmammm IV .--I A Kit -ssiMi ill sf7s)o aj rit Ms: mi ntjrr c rartrtrvA V r Illi I'nlted States government gives " out from time to time Information on all sorts of mutters pertalnini; to the welfare of the people, but It Is fsufe to say that none of Uncle Sam's news Is so eagerly a wallet, as la that contained In the periodical reports on the condition of the cotton crop which are Issued at Intervals of a month during the growing and liar-Vostir.K liar-Vostir.K season. No one need be told of the Importance of the cotton crop, not only to the people who rulxe this staple and the folk who convert It Into a manufactured fonn but to each and every one of us vho wear cloth- iMeJEieZZZZiIZf ZZ- j " , ' ,11 I L I I'll "fy" f""t re thoHo of the reirepeiilallves of the rot- ZZ " ' " . I ' -v '--L "; 1' 1 I f I 111 ton lirokera and others tradiiiK t.n the slock tr.ar- lR?- Tv4 ii'r"? vV'm - 1 f' V'J 1 111 fc-ts. Almost every suceeaalve cotton report l-lilt l-lilt A - "i a' "A i- if ,-''' " J ' Si I 111 l'y Kv''ritineiit ninlvea the price of colli' col-li' I "i ' ''K' y t'" ' ' I 'ii'X'. v Ill ,on RO "P or don Hn aa It picaes a nwrr.mj ."4f fj , 4. .j'-rt??-, i , ftT:' 'J r) JV-.'V -111 r. or a poor crop (or a crop that la different I K-JT'Viir, i''-'lC.T"V V" ''.Vii' J'' A " i ' from popular anticipation) and the rSV X AAV ' - O 'hK- ' - hmU-T who can et a "tip" as to toe content, of W J?- A-?- V 0 f t'i.- I ' . 3'V :'J '.'aJf'.ll l'"-l even a few minutes ahead of his fel-ll'"i'';r':''''':vi, fel-ll'"i'';r':''''':vi, ' W J r-.-1 L'i ' f'.S' Jj'., Ml lows may be enabled to make thousands of tlol- , 1 i-'-' .-,fJ.? f' yf" l """ ' ' Jtff'" ",. '""a1- 'I'll An Immeme army of people aeatternl through 111 ' 4 " ivi1&?ft''v' " V 'V'": r '-V VI n" 'be eottoii-Krowliic: atatea ru-operate with the 111 " ; " ' e , jp ' r),-''-,T ''','''" 'J l poernmeiit In ( ompl lng Ha cotton reports an ! Ill ii'?,.;''""""" ' -yri''' L.v'-f'Jl alinoat all of them give their services free In 'X&zfa'VJ N ill hb'lMhy - -'15 1 TMU&GOVJ?iMCiT O?0P J?FP0fiTM; of e vyi,-;. . t.J!wim. hw . w n a , PaF,if t. lY'z;r.7 ' JTJ. '-aVftm mm i i s&rrrAe u cor rev cxvkpoa t tig. Now It happens that It Is only the national I (overnment that has the necessary facilities for : leeplng tab upon the progTess and development i f each year'a cotton crop. Cotton Is raised In . to many states and over so wide an area that no I llngle firm or Individual has the facilities for In-forming In-forming himself of the yield In all section! of i the "cotton belt." i And yet accurate advance Information aa to i the state of the maturing crop Is of the utmost t Importance to tens of thousinds of American i citizens and other tens of thousands of people over seas for, be It known, the whole world de-. de-. penda largely upon America for its cotton. The ' business, commercial and financial world likes to i have a peep ahead with reference to any agrlcul-I agrlcul-I tural crop In order to make plans accordingly, but In the case of cotton such foresight Is espe-i espe-i rially vital. For, you understand, the condition of a crop as reflected In the country-wide govern-I govern-I ment reports tells everybody whether there la to i be a good yield or a poor yield of cotton and this In turn Indicates to the grower whether he will get a high price or a low price for his fluffy I white product. And as the forecast hints to the , manufacturer whether he will get his cotton cheap or not, so it signifies to him what he must charge for the completed goods as It comes from mills. And so all down the line to the "ultimate ronsumer" the cotton crop reports carry In their bidden meaning a message of low prices or high prices. As the summer and autumn season advance Interest In-terest grows more and more Intense In each aue. B ; II K .f-JU'W. lrJtT T2- "Ve-eJ"ili fpt "'I order to help the offlclali IL fTf: :.: rffk h-hxK. Z"mirr: 7yy. : I e Washington compile 11 jn V j I eg-Z , txn si o . ni ... I thoroughly accurate sys 11 i "irrrCTV-ef 'j i"; b; ', terns of reports which. II --JI f. ; t" -7 i M- I la recognized, la to the In- J ''.. -I: '' ' 'V t" " I 'erest of -all concerned. r " iftii' ,m'"?5r -J t-VU i "'" 1 correpondents who con- II t' .'v , 'J ' . mfj!Zf-" ' 11 tribute their mile to I'ncle II ' L.-'" ) 1 ,' lli''." Sam's mine of Informa- Irf ... . ; i-" lt'j- I'M ' .i "o" on ' growing cot- l v; J-fT!' wf 'i'; ' '""ll ,on rro' l' 'iave ' K ' jjiaj w 1 - ' ' -j ' f : i II devote much of their time i v ")f r-ti . v 2 , to the task. They merely IH i'iz-- i- ' ' - - II tend a few lines to Wanh- II ;, rfsja si f ' " . " ' i " II Ington once each month, J ',lny'W."Tgyf 'e. , f:. J. . : each peraon giving hU ; . - -iyr- TiaisHin - ' '.1 ij'.'. frank opinion as to the :?-w- -- 4- 1, condition and .roaMett Jll . r '."T'.j.V ?(,. J of tlie crop on his parti l -? )'.: " - - rular plantation or lu his 11-.-dV----"',;''A"',' JtW""' ' arr Immediate neighborhood, II g-SSSSSSsasamSSi F ' J Most of these reports art 1 WH? CYsW PifWAfTJ APf jrOKfD AS sent by mall but under trcyrjtr) ceeding crop report until It rea',Ug a climax lu the rase of the November and Iiecember reports. The department of agrb'ture uaes every oshI-ble oshI-ble precaution to prove any hint of the contents con-tents of a reort becoming public until noon on the appointed day when the bulletin is given simultaneously to every person who Is waiting for It at the headquarters of the crop reporting bureau In Washington. Then ensues a mad race to telephones and telegraph wires and a feverish fight to be first to communicate the news to New York and other cotton trading centers and to the great cities of Europe. The regular newspaper correspondents vie with one another In their ef forta to be first to get the cotton forecast "on the wire." but even more strenuous than their ef- v. v. I iaa.au w- - '"- - ---- telegraph is ut-ed and In each atate I'ncle Ham haa a salaried state agent who devotee till whole time to traveling over his atate and "aUlng up" the altuatlon, sending In tils conclusion by telegraph but taking the precaution to write his messages In a secret code or clpi.er so that no person, not even the telegraph ot-rators who handle han-dle them, could catch their meaning and thereby gain a hint as to what might be expected In a forthcoming crop rejiort. It Is at the crop reporting headquarters at Washington that this scheme of keeping watch on the maturing cotton crop Involves a task that taxes human endurance. To convey an Idea of Its magnitude It la only necessary to explain that during the cotton growing season the statlstlcl-tns are In correspondence with more than sixty thousand thous-and public and private, glnnerlea and upward of fifteen thousand bankers, merchants and others who are In a position to form opinions on the cotton cot-ton yield. The advices from all then volunteer "Intf-liaence officers" are looked up as received at Wafchlngton and kept closely guarded until the day aptiolnted for preparing the monthly report. Then the body of exeits known as the Crop He-porting He-porting Hoard la locked In a room and. taking all the accummulated Information, goes over It and preparea a general summary that embodies their findings the average aa It were, of all the reports re-ports received from every quarter Conditions may vary greatly in different parts of the country but the general rert will give the eople of the nation na-tion a bird's eye view of the whole situation in a broad iwnse. It Is this rMort which at the appointed ap-pointed hour Is made public and Inside of a few minutes Is flashed to all parte of the country and to foreign parts |