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The 1923 Missouri cotton crop is estimated to be worth approximately $24,000,000, according to reports from Sikeston. This is an increase of more than $6,000,000 over the total value of the crop in 1922. The cotton crop in Missouri for 1923 was produced from 325,000 acres and in both value and acreage surpasses any previous record in the history of the state. The bulk of the Missouri cotton is grown in what is known as the Missouri delta section, or Southeast Missouri, and comprises Pemiscot, Dunklin, Butler, New Madrid, Scott, Stoddard, Mississippi and Cape Girardeau counties. When the boll weevil began to destroy the cotton crop in the southern states corn and wheat farmers in the Missouri delta section began to experiment with cotton, the first crops being planted in Pemiscot and Dunklin counties. The acreage in Dunklin County continued to increase until in 1920 Dunklin stood at the head of the list of cotton producing counties in the United States. The success of cotton in Dunklin and Pemiscot counties caused farmers in Missouri counties to the north to begin planting it. In Mississippi, Scott and Cape Girardeau counties cotton was grown in 1923 on farms where it not only never had been grown before, but by farmers who had never worked in a cotton field. The average yield per acre for 1923 is estimated to be around 250 pounds lint, or one-half bale. With cotton selling around $150 a bale the cotton farmer in Southeast Missouri is obtaining a gross return of about $75 an acre. In 1922 the average yield was 326 pounds to the acre, or two and one-half times the average for all of the cotton producing territory. The 1922 average yield in Missouri established a record that has never been equaled in the United States. Judge Robert P. Walker, in an opinion filed in the Supreme Court en banc in Jefferson City, and concurred in by all the other judges, denied the application of Russell Cockburn for a writ of habeas corpus against Sheriff John F. Willman of St. Louis County. Cockburn is a patient at the Federal Hospital for Disabled Service Men at Jefferson Barracks. He has been fighting extradition to Iowa for a number of weeks, where he is under indictment at Des Moines for complicity in connection with the theft in 1922 of $86,000 through padded municipal pay rolls. Gov. Hyde honored a requisition for his extradition several weeks ago. Cockburn fought the requisition, and, as a last resort, applied to the Supreme Court for the writ of habeas corpus. He contended that he was not a fugitive from justice in the State of Iowa, but that he had been sent by the United States to the hospital for treatment, and that it was illegal to serve the warrant on a government reservation. Mrs. Lillie E. Still, aged 55, died in Marceline as the result of burns received when her clothing caught fire from a small heating stove while she was working on Christmas preparations for a holiday home-coming of her nine children, who live in Iowa, Kansas and Missouri. The children were to have been here at Christmas time, but were summoned earlier by her death and the joyous reunion was shattered. Following a conference of officers and the Board of Directors, the Citizens' Bank of Higbee failed to open its doors for business, according to word from Moberly. The bank was organized in 1891. J. W. Marshall is president of the institution, George Patterson, vice-president, and Ellerd Baker, cashier. The bank had a capital of $10,000, a surplus of $10,000, and deposits totaled about $162,000. Starting with an enrollment of 30 in 1913, the University of Missouri extension division in Columbia now has 1,002 taking work by mail, with all but six counties in the state represented in the enrollment. These students are making up work which they could not take away from home, due to family ties or employment. In the mass of Christmas packages that came in the mail to the penitentiary in Jefferson City for inmates of the institution was a .38-caliber automatic revolver. It was addressed to John Rufus, a negro convict from St. Joseph, serving thirty-six years for murder. Another election has been called for January 8 at Thayer to allow the voters of that place again to make an effort to vote waterworks bonds. Two propositions will be submitted, one for $20,000 bonds to build and equip a municipal ice plant, and one for $55,000 to build a waterworks system. C. F. Foster, wealthy Poplar Bluff farmer, was seriously hurt when attacked and severely torn by a large hog, which was being driven from a pen. The hog knocked him down and succeeded in breaking four ribs before driven away by persons, who rushed to the scene. Supt. Hickey announced in Sedalia that M.-K.-T. trains Nos. 37 and 38 on the Paola, Kan., and Holden, Mo., division, discontinued six months ago, will be restored. Application for a writ of prohibition against Judge J. H. Westhues of the Cole County Circuit Court in Jefferson City, to restrain him from enforcing the contempt order against Ben C. Hyde, state superintendent of insurance, in the fire insurance rate case, was filed in the Supreme Court by John T. Barker, Kansas City, former attorney general of Missouri, who is representing Hyde. Mrs. Frances Truitt Rogers, 30, wife of James F. Rogers, and daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank M. Truitt, died at a hospital in Sedalia.