The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-09-24
cothran 6. Co.'s Cotton Letter.

New York Financial Chronicle by Private Wire to Cothran & Co.
 Our advices by telegraph this evening denote that on the whole the weather
 has been favorable during the week and that cotton Is opening rapidly. Picking has made very satisfactory pro- gross and the movement to the markets has been on a liberal scale. In portions of
 Arkansas 1t is claimed that dry, warm weather Is needed to mature the crop. Our Memphis correspondent states that in his vicinity poor top crop is generally reported and from some points elsewhere
 there are complaints of injury to cotton by dry weather
 Events of the week have been such as to thoroughly confuse the trade Under the influence of widely varying crop es- inmates the future market has rolled
 around like a storm-tossed ship in the trough of a. sea.
 There has been plenty of business but at times the course of prices have been so irregular that none but the most de-
 cided traders have made very much
 money
 A week ago everything was very quiet
 with prices getting pretty close to JOG.
 No one believed that the price of futures
 corresponded with value of spot cotton in
 the south 50 that there was pretty good buying around 10Ac.
 Early this week an extensive short in- terest formed around 101sc and below was forced into the market on the unfavorable weekly weather report. The narrow character of the market left only limited supply of contracts for sale. and the short covering lifted prices to about 11c.
 Trading increased in activity and the tone of the market has Been such as to keep cautious traders from the short side The market has had too much of the ap- pearance that was presented around 91zc to warrant any one in attempting to short it, however cautious he might be about pulling cotton.
 The attention of the trade has been att tracted by the doings of Mir. Sully and Mr. Price, whose circulars have been re- spectively bullish and bearish. and circu- | lated widely throughout the country I MT. Sully has come very close to the | crop for two years and notwithstanding | his failure last year in speculative way, | his estimate was probably as close as | human ingenuity could attain. 1 When he says that the crop this year will be 100000 the trade is interested though perhaps not convinced. | The crop was cut down last year by frost to the extent of half a million bales, I and any estimate now must be made | without the knowledge of frost dates. It | may be. of course, that we are to have a 1 killing frost at an early date and cut off
 the crop disastrously.
 Then again we may have late frost, in 1 which event the crop would be fully half a million bales larger than with an early | frost.
 l Mir. Price, on the other hand takes a l bearish view of the outlook on large re- | ceipts and poor trade. Ills crop estimates are changed so frequently every few
 months throughout the year that figures | from this source hardly claim much att l tention.
 l The net result of conflicting views has been to cause an irregular market, bur in
 she main the tendency has been up. The supply of cotton contracts s so small and the question of frost so important that | we are not inclined to the short side of the cotton market at the present, and would
 advise purchases on all recessions.