The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-03-21
Total crop :. S,714.011

movement of the crop from this time
until the end of August as uninterrupt
eddy great as that of last year to bring
the present crop even up to last year ;
level. AS Il matter of fact. the receipts
do not now promise crop i'll excess
of l0.500,000 bales.
All this is bad for Mr. NeilI. but it is
worse for the poor planter. Mr.. Nell
has lost his reputation rs n prophe1.
and it is likely that next fall he will
not endeavor to foretell the crop until Il
few bales of it, at least. have been
picked and marketed. lie may, inIeed.
conclude not to make any estimate ut
all, and in that case the cotton world
will he better off But the planter has
lost money. The profit which was right
fully his due has escaped aim ami is in
the pockets of cotton buyers. He may
for the coming season, anyway. dis
trust the efforts of the early crop guess
ers and conclude that the value of
Americas great crop product, raised
over a territory greater than the whole
of Europe. cannot be predetermined in
fallibly by the coniectures of any one
man. And if the planter will abandon
his present system of selling his cotton
into the field and will return to the old
method of putting it into the hands of
an agent or factor in Il large town who
can work it off during the year as its
value becomes apparent, he will be
eventually the gamer, not the loser, by
this years experience. Now he is inn
poverished and discouraged. Official
reports from the South indicate. what
n. hat xxyfIi hn
a decided decrease in the acreage of the
coming cotton planting, that little or
no money has been spent for mules,
and that only about one-third of the
ordinary amount of fertilizing material
has been purchased.
And vet the outlook for the cotton
grower is not unrelievably black. Part
Nv because of the reasons just mentioned
there is a strong probability that the
next crop will be smaller than the pres
ent one and that it will bring proper
tionately ii much higher price. The
planter has the grim satisfaction of
knowing that over 100000 bales of
short cotton, or contracts to deliver
that amount. that have accumulated III
the New York market as the result of
confident operations for the decline by
English spectators who believed i'll Mr..
Neilfs 12,250, 000-bale crop will, in all
probability, have TO be cancelled at a
heavy loss to the sellers and at an equal
~ heavy profit to American buyers who
did not believe in Neill. Certainly no
other result can happen while the price
of spot cotton in the Southern cities re
mains but slightly below the price here.
and that price in turn is far above that
of the options for future delivery.
But the great thing which will benefit
the cotton grower is the extraordinary
and peremptory demand which has aris-
Ell for manufactured cotton all over the
world and especially in this country.
bidding fair to continue for twelve
months Mt least. The prosperity of the
cotton manufacturing business is, Ill
fact, at present unmatched by that of
any other American industry. except
the manufacture of iron and steel.
Within four years, indeed, the worlds
consumption of cotton has increased
100000 bales. The vast stores of cot
ton fabrics which numbered the ware
houses of Fall River and Providence
have been swept away. Ninety thou-
sand operatives in the cotton mills here
have had their wages raised 10 per ceA..
within two weeks. \ million spindlcs
which were silent in New England last
summer are busy today and before
long, we venture to affirm, will be sing
ing as merrily i'll the small hours of the
morning as now they do at noon. If
the current crop is but between 10000
900 and 10,7o0,000 bales. this crop and
the reserve stock will be barely suffi-
cient for consumption until the winter.
Should. in addition to this, the crop OF
1S99-1900 prove to be small or even of
only fair size, and its prospect of be-
ing great is steadily declining, the
phlanter will get prices for his raw cot
ton which will more than repair the
havoc caused by the mal-prophetic NELL,
and he will see again the better times
of the past.