FROST IN THE SOUTHERN STATES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 803, 28 April 1910, Page 7

FROST IN THE SOUTHERN STATES.

Visitations of frosts destroying whole fruit crops are not unknown in the history of- the Southern States. The orange crop has on occasions 'been completely wiped out, causing the loss of millions of dollars. . Even sunny Florida ; has fallen...beneath the blight. _ Ordinarily the weather at this period in the affected States should be'warm' and spring-like at this timo of the year. . It is. these occasional varia-; tions and their fearfully destructive effects that have driven'the centre of gravity of the fruit-gro'winc - industry-: westward to California. , 'J- he-'. Pacific Slope escapes 'such visitations. - The bivouacked /orchards, the .blanketed trees; and the artificial flooding speak much, for,, the . boldness, brain, and resource 1 of the' American orchardist. The cranberry, almost, unknown in this country, is a feature of Amen■can life/ Cranberry sauco goes with most things, and cranberry_ pie is the national dlsli oh Thanksgiving Day.

LANCASHIRE COTTON FAMINE. ''SUFFERING IN THE 'SIXTIES. The cablegram states that the destruction done by the weather in the cotton, belt of the United/ States is the most 'disastrous . - since the American Civil /War.'. If the consequent suffering in Lancashire should be- anything like what it was at the time of the Civil .War," tbo outlook'before the .northwest of England would bo black indeed.l ■ -V;/< The supply of cotton from North America nearly ceased in consequence of the socession of the-Southern States from the Union in 1860-61. In May, 1862, it was.'estimated'ithat..the labour-, ing ■ classes in .England : were losing £12,000,000 a year, and,that the total loss, including - the employing classes, was- nearly £40,000,000 a year. ' ' The Cotton District' Relief Fund was established on July 19, 1862, and on July -24 Queens-Victoria 1 , gave £2000; The cotton famine was 'not declared- to be ended, till June, 1865. In two years the sum expended, in' relief had been one million sterling. ; In the Lancashire district (population about 4,000,000) ,the number receiving parish' relief in September; 1862, was 163,498. ' On February 9, 1863, the ship George Griswold arrived, containing contributions of provisions, etc., from'NortV America, for the relief of the. sufferers .in Lancashire. • The Relief Act: of. 1862, .which was :continued"in 1863, gave, much assistance by empowering guardians to raise loans 'to enable them to establish relief works. - The distress in Lancashire created a strong' feeling in Britain in : favour of intervention in the United, States trouble, so as to terminate the Civil War 'or at any rate'modify'the blockade and open;-the Southern .ports to 'British ■commerce. • At one stage ; war unth the Northern States might have resulted; but the growing exhaustion of tho South, and the increase of anti-slavery sentiment in Britain, prevailed against the intervention policy;.

TO BROADEN THE SUPPLY. ' :' COLONIAL-GROWN: COTTON. * As, long ago aa, r lßs2—years before the ar—Mr. T. Bazley ;had warned Great .'Britain of the danger of trusting to the United States as the one source of supply of raw cotton" to Britain. One of, the latest and greatest advocates . of a remedy for the same danger, was ..Sir Alfred Jones, the Liverpool merchant and shipowner, recently deceased! Sir Alfred Jones gave the following information on "Our Greatest Industry—the Cotton Trade" in the "Daily Mail" Empire Day Supplement:— '['■ "The .estimated, number of spindles in work in Great Britain for 1908 was 53} millions, and ~taking the value of each spindle at 305., we get a-cost of nearly £80,000,000. for spinning, mills alone, and to this must be added the cost of looms, printing, dyeing, and bleaching works, .which are worth as much again. '. ■ '-. , ■ "A spindle requires from 301b. to 351b. of cotton per annum, which gives a total of about three .and a half million bales_ of 5001b. weight, nearly three million bales of which are American cotton. _ "The United States of America during the last few years have produced from ten million, to 13 million bales of Cotton, and to the man in the street the three million bales • required by Great Britain would seem easy' to obtain;. but we must ..not forget that America has some 28 . million spindles, which number is increasing rapialv, and 'she requires over four and a half million. bales for her own consumption, for, although the spindles; are fewer in number, more cotton is used, the counts being coarser.; In ■'England, finer counts are spun; consequently, less cotton is used, but more labour is put' into the manufacture of tho goods. . \_ . "In addition, to Great Britain and America, Germany -wants one and a quarter million bales; Russia, France, Austria, and Italy half a million each; and other countries a million between them. . Thus we have accounted for about 12 million bales of American cotton. ! "India produces about throo million bales, the bulk of wliich is used by' Japan, .Germany, France, Austria, Russia and India. . "Egypt also produoes three-quarters of a million bales, half of which is used by Groat Britain. "In. "dditwm. »imo million a

half bales are produced in Russia, Brazil, and Japan, where the cotton is chiefly used. "We have seen that a crop of about 12 million to 13 million bales of American cotton is required to satisfy these demands,, and if the 1 crop falls short, England suffers from a shortage of raw material. The result is short time, and consequent distress.

"In 1904, when Lancashire mills were no short time, it is estimated that capital and labour in the cotton trade alone lost some £150,000 a week, to say nothing of the ■ losses in other trades directly connected with the industry. Some ten million jwople are dependent, either directly or indirectly, on', the cotton industry of Lancashire, which is a trade dependent on a single foreign country for its supply of raw material, and is at the mercy of the climate and the simulators." Sir Alfred mentioned that the only' cure for the calamity which threatens the cotton trade of Lancashire is to broaden the basis of supply. To this end, he founded the British Cottongrowing Association to encourage the growth 'of: cotton in the colonics.