OCR Text |
Show 4 'v T" United States government gives I out from time to time information : 3 on all sorts of matters pertaining to i'AI the welfare of the people, but it is . A safe to say that none of Uncle Sam's Ijfe-V'NiM Dews 's 80 eagerly awaited as is that Api'if yJ contained in the periodical reports JrsA on the condition of the cotton crop yt which are issued at intervals of a lr) P 2 mon':a during the growing and har- i 62 vesting season. No one need be told J CT f tne importance of the cotton crop, not only to the people who raise this staple and the folk who convert it into a manufactured form but to each and every one of us who wear cloth- - , l l - - W A forts are those of the representatives of the cotton cot-ton brokers and others trading cn the stock markets. mar-kets. Almost every successive cotton report issued is-sued by the government makes the price of cotton cot-ton go. up or down according as it presages a good or a poor crop (or a crop that is different in any way from popular anticipation) and the broker who can get a "tip" as to the contents of the report even a few minutes ahead of his fellows fel-lows may be enabled to make thousands of dollar's. dol-lar's. . An Immense army of people scattered through all the cotton-growing states co-operate with the government in compi;ing its cotton reports and almost all of them give their services free in -i' ' A"A; y - i - ' - . ' r. " ' - r , r Jr-3su' - ' fl i ! r 'v " ' - 4- i I , $ 1 order to ne'P the officials t 'A i ? "j : sgj a J at Washington compile a ' ' ' "'MT., U . fHM I ' H thoroughly accurate ss- f . i t 1 Pi iy-'T " , it terns of reports which, it ..i 1 1 I..,,., , , iiiMirj. : :' :v ? , " ;-.".-vTw , ..f , tl is recognized, is to the in. JTrY? V mS CVrrOy CVWPOAT U ' : ----- . t - ; V !! terest of all concerned. 13 ' V f - 11 1 - ' A"Ar v ' - ;! ' 1 v. r-:,,t. ,-v v.: V : 5 In - ' a - " - - v. il ILv ' ? A ' '""" ' c 11 lb , " ' " - 4 - ' 11 11:A- i"r.r--""T:y U uc Dill c luuo L ui lucaa correspondents who contribute con-tribute their mite to LTncle Sam's mine of information informa-tion on the growing cotton cot-ton crop do not have to devote much of their time to the task. They merely send a few lines to Washington Wash-ington once each month, each person giving his frank opinion as to the condition and prospects of the crop on his particular parti-cular plantation or in his Immediate neighborhood. Most of these reports ara sent by mail but under Bg. Now it happens that it is only the national fovernment that has the necessary facilities for ceeplng tab upon the progress and development f each year's cotton crop. Cotton is raised In !o many states and over so wide an area that no single firm or individual has the facilities for Informing In-forming himself of the yield in all sections of the "cotton belt." And yet accurate advance information as to the state of the maturing crop Is of the utmost Importance to tens of thousnnds of American citizens and other tens of thousands of people over seas for, be it known, the whole world depends de-pends largely upon America for its cotton. The business, commercial and financial world likes to have a peep ahead with reference to any agricultural agricul-tural crop in order to make plans accordingly, but in the case of cotton such foresight is especially espe-cially vital. For, you understand, the condition of a crop as reflected in the country-wide government govern-ment reports tells everybody whether there is to be a good yield or a poor yield of cotton and this in turn indicates to the grower whether ho will get a high price or a low price for his flurry j white product. And as the forecast hints to tho j manufacturer whether he will get his cotion 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 tho "ullimale consumer" the cotton crop reports carry in their hidden meaning a message of low prices or high prices. As the summer and autumn season advances Interest In-terest grows more and more intense In each sue- cc-eding crop report until it roach'.'? a climax in the case of the November and December reports. Tho department of agrh .Jturo uses every possible possi-ble precaution to prevent any hint of the contents con-tents of a report becoming public until noon on tho appointed (lay when tho bulletin is given simultaneously to every person who is waiting for it at tho headquarters of the crop reporting bureau In Washington. Then ensues a mad race to telephones and telegraph wires nnd a feverish light, to be first to communicate tho news to New York nnd other cotton trading centers and to the great cities of lOuropo. The regular newspaper correspondents vie with one another In their efforts ef-forts to be first to get the cotton forecast "on the wire," but even more strenuous than their of- itfi JJ isvcis io sent by man duc unuer certain circumstances the telegraph is used and in each state Uncle Sam has a salaried state agent who devotes his whole time to traveling over his state and "sizing up" tho situation, sending in his conclusion by telegrapli but taking the precaution to write his messages in a secret code or cipher so that no person, not even the telegraph operators who handle han-dle them, could catch their meaning and thereby gain a hint as to what might be expected in a forthcoming crop report: It Is at tho crop reporting headquarters at Washington that tills scheme of keeping watch on the maturing cotton crop Involves a task that taxes human endurance. To convey an idea of Its magnitude it is only necessary to explain that during the cotton growing season the statisticians are In correspondence with more than sixty thousand thous-and public and private ginneries and upward of fifteen thousand bankers, merchants and others who are in a position to form opinions on the cotton cot-ton yield. Tho advices from all these volunteer "intelligence officers" are looked up as received at Washington and kept closely guarded until tho day appointed for preparing tho monthly report. Then tho body of experts known as the Crop Reporting Re-porting Hoard is locked in a room and, taking all the accunimulated Information, goes over it. and prepares a general summary that embodies their findings (lie average as it. were, of nil tho reports re-ports received from every quarter. Conditions may vary greatly In different parts of the country but tho general report will give tho people of the nation na-tion a bird's eye view of the whole situation In a broad sense. It is tills report which at the appointed ap-pointed Hour Is made public and Inside of a few minutes Is flushed to all parts of tho country and to foreign pnrtH. It lt :( 'If (' . ('! '.)' M'!( "'Throw out (ho mall sa.ek,' ordered tho man with the rlllo. "I reached down and Hung the suck Into tho road. "'Hotter throvr f.ul tho Wells Fargo box, too, I guess,' he ndrtid. "I kicked otvr the treasure box as ordered. "'That's all,' s.ild tho man, curtly, 'lulve on.' "I touched up the team ami wo went bowling merrily down the canyon. There was not a word spoken for n full ten minutes. Tin n the (ung woman, turning to me, said, guilelessly; ""That looked like a mighty lonesome place to hnvfl a pontnlnYo!' " |