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62 HASKINS & SELLS June The Marketing of Cotton By L. C. MATTHEWS Manager, Atlanta Office I A M a bale of cotton, the first of ten bales produced on a farm among the Red Hills of Jasper County, Georgia. The crop, of which I am a part, was cultivated by a negro tenant, the motive power being a Georgia mule. The details of the cost of my production were the very least of the troubles of either the landlord or the tenant, and were lost in the chaotic condition of agricultural accounting prevailing in the cotton belt. I was harvested, or "picked," from the stalk early in September, before the frost had seared the leaves, before the autumn showers had beaten the locks to the ground, even while the foliage was yet green and the plant was blooming at the top, consequently I was free from all trash or dirt and was destined to grade well. When the picking had accumulated approximately 1,500 pounds I was hauled in the crate of a one-horse wagon to the nearest ginnery, an adjunct of the National Cotton Oil M i l l , at the town of H , where I was ginned and packed, partly covered with six yards of jute bagging and bound with six steel bands or "ties." The ginnery made a small profit on the sale of the bagging and the ties which bound me, and the charge for my ginning constituted a credit to Revenue from Ginning and was paid for with a part of the proceeds from the sale, to the ginnery, of my seed, which now also became a merchantable commodity—"but this is another story." From the ginnery I was hauled to a nearby cotton warehouse where I was weighed, tipping the scales at 510 pounds. A large gash was cut across the entire width of my side and about a half pound of lint extracted therefrom, as a sample, and exhibited on a table. After the usual bidding I was sold for forty cents per pound and incidentally my grade was designated as "middling fair" or number 2. The storage receipt covering my deposit in the warehouse was O. K . ' d by my purchaser, and the price marked thereon. The receipt was taken by my vendor to the local bank, where it was presented and paid, thus becoming the basis of a debit to the account of my purchaser and resulting in a secured overdraft on his account. For this overdraft the bank charged him the usual rate of interest. The proprietor of the warehouse was required to keep on deposit with the bank insurance policies fully covering loss by fire for all cotton so handled, payable, in case of loss, to the bank as its interest might appear. I was kept in the warehouse several weeks, accruing in the meantime storage charges at the rate of 50 cents per month, which formed a credit to the storage revenue of the warehouse. These charges were paid on the day of my delivery, with a score of other bales of various grades and marks, which were loaded in the same car and shipped to my owner at the nearest compress point at the City of M , about forty miles distant. The shipment was made on local billing by the Railroad Company, the Freight Revenue being assessed at 10 cents per 100 pounds, to the compress point, with the. privilege of "Concentration and Reshipment" within 60 days. I was allowed to remain in the compress for 15 days, free of charge, after which storage was charged against my owner at the rate of 20 cents per bale, per month, from the day of my receipt. After remaining for a period of several weeks I was ordered "turned down"
Object Description
Title |
Marketing of cotton |
Author |
Matthews, Levin Clayton |
Subject |
Cotton trade |
Office/Department |
Haskins & Sells. Atlanta Office |
Citation |
Haskins & Sells Bulletin, Vol. 03, no. 06 (1920 June), p. 62-64 |
Date-Issued | 1920 |
Source | Originally published by: Haskins & Sells |
Type | Text |
Collection | Deloitte Digital Collection |
Digital Publisher | University of Mississippi Libraries. Accounting Collection |
Date-Digitally Created | 2009 |
Identifier | HS Bulletin 3-p62 |