Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-12-20


ONE CAUSE OF THE EFFORT
to stimulate a speculation in cotton was
probably to help out the New EnglOnd cot
ton manufacturers. They started trade for
the season about the LIST of August, on a
very high horse, but have seen their goods
undergo decline since that date of fully
twenty per cent. on an average. Many cot
ton fabrics are now selling at lower prices
than before the war. Standard sheetings
have been sold at from nine TO ten cents,
and full madden prints from "a to cents
per yard.
But while the Bureau cotton speculation
has not checked the decline in goods, it
has stimulated buying by English, Ameri-
can and German spinners. France alone
has taken less cotton than last year. French
manufacturers have not appreciated official
integrity and wisdom at Washington. But
Notwithstanding the reduced demand
from France, the quantity taken out of the
market exceeds by I65, 900 bales the guam
tity taken in the first three months Of the
last cotton year.
In another sense, however, the Bureau
reports have operated adversely to the spec
ulation for rise. They have prevented a
large 'EshoTt interest," being made and kept
out.
THE WEAKNESS OF TIE MARKET
in the pSst few days, in which the long
expected falling off in the receipts seerls to
have actually begun, is due to the absence
Of any such stimulant as a ''short interest"
would afford. Thus the bureau seems to
have stuck its friends all around. The
problem of the quantity of cotton grown in
the United States in 1874 must soon be
solved with reasonable degree of GER
tainty. An Augusta paper compares No
vember, 1874, with November, 1882. 1t
has been remarkably dry throughout the
South. In November, 1889, our contem-
pOrary says, the bed of the Savannah river
at Augusta was plOughed up and sowed to
turnips, upon which, when they should
have been ready for gathering, there were
thirty feet Of water. The year 1899 was a
remarkable one for cotton. The crop was
swollen to the then unprecedented aggre-
gate of 2, 1855 bales, against an average
for the three preceding seasons of ], 524, $50
bales. The average Of the crops of cotton
in the years 1871, 1872, and 1873, is 3,673,-
1876 bales. A similar increase in 1874 will
swell the yield to 4,521, 3S2 bales, and
many estimates are placed as high as
100000 bales, but probably 100000 may
be accepted as the average Of estimates.
CROP ESTIMATES.
1t has been customary to take the re-
ceipts at the ports to Jan. 10, and double
them, as affOrding a reliable estimate of
the whole crop. But the movement of
cotton overland, which is not taken into
the account till the end of the year, has
rapidly increased. The receipts at st.
Louis and Cincinnati to November % were
$4,000 bales against $4,000 bales for the
corresponding period last year. The total
overland movement last year was $4,000
bales, an increase of 40 per cent. over the
preceding year, and it is reasonable TO put
it for the current year at $4,000 bales.
The receipts at the ports to November 2S
were 297, bales in excess of the pre-
ceding season. Allow that half of this IN
crease be hereafter lost, and there will be
an increase at the end of the season of
las, 500 bales. The receipts at the ports
last year were 1898, 500 bales. We thus
reach an approximate estimate of the crop
of 1915:
Bales.
heceipts at Cle porI 900
Taken by Southern spinners.......... 10000
Iotal crop-.-..-........-..-. AZ, 900
A NEW ELEMENT
has this year entered into the speculation
in cotton-namely, reports monthly from
Committees on Statistics of the several cot
ton exchanges of the South, upon the con-
dition and prospects Of the growing crop.
These have been lugubriOus to the last de-
gree. Even the Galveston Cotton Ex-
change had the audaciiy 10 put forth in
October an estimate of the diminished
yield Of cotton in that State. 1t was with
reference 10 these reports that a Liverpool
paper remarked that ''if the cotton crop did
prove to be full one, the season had de-
veloped an unusual amount OF mendacity."
There has, however, been no unusual
amount of croaking from the South, but it
has been organized, concerted, and conse-
quently it has appeared to be greater.
There is q natural explanation of all
this. The Southern planter, when his cot
ton begins to mature, and the time ap-