The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1891-12-29
Cottou-Its Low Price and Prospect.


Your minor editorial Of the 9th on cotton.
wherein you give the crop of 1870 as some
what over 100000 bales and the crop OF 1891
rs 100000 bales less than 1899 conveys an III
adequate idea OF the cotton crops OF 30 and 'yl.
aud therefore of the reason OF the present ca
lamitOus price OF the staple which has brought
loss to the whole South and disaster 60 many
parts thereof and which has extended It's EVIL
effects 70 Richmond.
The crop of 1880 was ABOVE $500 600 bales.
and tho latest English estimate of the crop OF
1891 is 800 900. and Of Bradstreets who, how
ever - not oore,dcsoA high euthorry. ia
S.4y0. 900. thus giving crop OF about ILu1D,OOO
bales instead Of about H. 800 900, according to
Tour figures for the two years.
Such Is the great and increasing demand for
cotton the market could have withst0Od even
such enormous and unprecedented crops tOr
two successive years as 1880 900 bales. but
when it lad t. withstand a pressure OF l., 0O0.-
900 the present disastrous break Was ineyi-
table.
The latest figures are as follows:
1871. 1890
Receipts at ports to Dec. ls...4.a39395 $3.50. i26
Net overland 10 Dec. ls......... oSI4u tG2,616
houthern consumption 10 Dec.
Interior stocks in excess of
Sep.. lst....-....-............-. 5jl53i d9l,hl6
Total ia sight Dec. ls..... .5,1s6,29O BRIO 9S
Excess Of 1891 over 1890. 5g632.
course upon receipts UP 10 next September q
period OF nearly eight and a half months,
which ~ mat ter OF conjecture. but 80 in
that period for 1890 the receipts we're fully
3,400. 600 bales. II is not unreasonable to ex-
pect for 1891 REGENTS of y 600 900 bales which
will be necessary 10 make a crop o. 8.401. 600.
AS long as a crop of this eize Overshadows
the market there Is little hope of advance
over present prices. which are from TO nc.
for middllug cotton IN the principal Southern
markets N!th crop of S.OJ0.OJ0 there would
be some Improvement IN prices but in no
probable event is there any hope OF such an
advance as viii rescue the planter and the
merchants who supply his wants from serious
loss.
The question naturally arises. what e the
prospect OF escape from this disastrous con-
ditlon Some say. reduce prOdu ton. but
0s long as there are millions of acres of viz
gin land admirably adapted TO cotton in
Texas and Arkansas tins resource IS hardly
probable unless forsOoth nature should in
tervene aud blast the harvest which would
be remedy worse than the disease. Texas
alone can IN time grow a crop OF 5000 900
bales and It Is the Texas crop. yearly increas.
ing ana raised without fertilizers at "A mini
mum cost, which has done the mischief
Others say raise more grain and meat and
less cotton. But neither will this remedy
probably operate because neither the climate
nor the soil of the South is favorable 10 grain.
and without abundance Of grain cheap meat
is impossible and because the people know
little and care less for anything else but cot
ton, and 1t Is vain therefore. unless in excep-
tlona cases. 10 expect them 10 DO what is al
most equal to a change OF nature
The prospect Is not encouraging. The
remedy would seem 90 be first, more economy
in the raising Of cotton. and second that low
prices will so stimulate the demand for cot
ton as 10 raise its price 10 point Iemunera-
tive TO the planter. But the virgin fields of
Texas, unlimited in extent. are and for years
VIII continue TO DO a menace 10 the cotton
planters III whose prosperity Richmond is in
terested, end the planting region tributary TO
Nchmond can only meet this competition,
not by reducing production. but by producing
at less cost, and II this cannot be done then
woe 10 the cotton interest in Virginia North
Carolina South Carolina and Georgia for
Texas will not restrict her cotton production
even though the cotton sections of these
States be reduced 20 desOlaton.
Richmond has suffered considerably this
year IN its Southern trade. first by reduced
business, and second by failures and extern
eions. and the prospects tor 1892 are gloomier.
perhaps than ever. The outlook in Virginia
and the tobacco sections OF North Carolina
Is, perhaps, better than usual.
MERCHANT