The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-05-24
The Next Cotton Crop.
ITS EXTENT AND PRICES-A WARNING
TO MERCHANTS.
from the Memphis Avalanche, Mav5.l

ry From the Memphis Avalanche, May 81
Editor Acknowledgement attention
to the following extract from a Boston
letter may be Of some value to our cot
ton growers who may be blindly mag
lining that they are to get q full price for
the next CROP
Fortunately for our export trade,
there will be great export demand for
breadstuffs, and we can supply it.
On the other hand, our next cotton crop
promisesto be.sO abundantly large that
it will over supply. the worlds want,
when added to the stock on hand and
the supply from other countries, and
therefore sell at a low pl.ce.
"The average currency value of the
eight cotton crops since the warhaS been
$292, OO0, 1000; yet the largest of them,
that Of 1901 (the largest but one ever
prOduced,) produced only 1868, 100000.
The annual export since the war has
averaged $156,00O,00 gold value; yet,
that from the large crop Of 1901 was
only 000 ,000, because of the low
price, although it exceeded the average
of the others i'll quantity by 81 per cent.
So of the crop just planted. If it equals
the present expectations in it's Outturn,
the surplus win be very large and the
price be very lOw-the exported portion
producing less gold value than the small
est export Of any one year since 1869.
The actual may bewidely different from
the anticipation; but forecast must rest
on the apparent probabilities"
You will see from this that animmense
crop is looked for by cotton m%anufactu-
rers ADDICTION buyers, andthis is exactly
the influence operating so seriously up
| on this section in depressingthe price of
the raw material. There can be no doubt
| of the correctness of the position taken.
| From all the information Obtainable, it
is an ascertained fact that throughout
the cotton States, and particularly that
| section drained by the Mississippi River,
there is no. planted an increase of cot
ton area varying from 10 to IS per cent.
above the acreage of last year. When it
is remembered, also, that q large emf
grafton, at least 10000. from the States
of Virginia, the CarOlinas, Georgia and
| Alabama, have come from the red pine
hills of those States across our greatriver,
into the rich and exhaustless lands of
our unequaled cotton belt, and that each
| of this number, instead of producing
three bales from Is acres, as in those
States, will produce 10 bales from 10
acres in his new home, you will readily
see the considerable increase to be real
lied through the means alone. Remem-
Der, too, this enormous Increase made in
the South Atlantic States, particularly
in the means adopted to fertilize and en-
rich that section. This will add another
important element in the calculation
which will help to swell the aggregate
cotton production. Again, cotton grow
| ers in all the Southern States are better
provided than ever before with means
L. 1-a1xnnRr,11rr AkN1 nAo-11 T1c~r
now have plenty Of stock, implements
and labor, and it is aremarkab1e fact, in
| all this great valley, atleas5, that where
as each year since the war complaints
we're constantly coming up concerning
the diS0rganizatiOn of labor, now the
almost universal verdict from the cOun-
try is one highly favorable to the steady
and faithful application of the labOring
element to the work in hand. All these
facts, it will be readily seen, must tend
not only to a largely increased crop, but
to a correspOndingly depressed scale of
] prices, and | write this article in order
to warn the cotton growers and merch-
ants who may advance upon the faith of
their productions that it will be unwise
to predicate any mOneyed transaction
upon a basis which shall recognize even
an approximation next season to the
present prices. If cotton, therefore, on
account next winter Of the erormity of
the crop, shall happen to be un~emuner-
alive, and in the face of even this the
farmers are compelled to buy corn at a
large advance, let no ore who reads this
article say he was not WAIVED in time to
avert his calamities. I write this in the
general interest, but shall feel hattered
if it save even a single worthy planter
from embarrassment.
WIN. r. MOORE.