The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-09-01
COTTON LETTER.
By Private Wire to Loveman a& Co.,, 30
 Commerce Street.

By Private Wire to L0veman & Co.,, j0
 Commerce Street.
 New Orleans, Aug. 31.--Co- incident ally with the closing of today's mar ed into history. No adequate review of the season can be attempted within the necessarily circumscribed space of a daily market letter, but still, It might some noteworthy facts and some val uable deductions might be drawn from the course of events during the past twelve months ending today.
 While no official figures have yet been given out, it is safe to say that Score tary Testers annual report will show q commerctel crop of practically H. GOO 900 bales. Owing to the fact that in the acreage and that weather con ditions having been very unfavorable tn some sections of the belt, the season of 1S05-06 opened with a very pessi- mistic feeling prevailing in regard to the size of the crop then maturing Many private estimates. gotten out as the season advanced. did not much ex- ceed 10,000,0 900 bales. and the belief iu a small yield was strengthened by the Governments estimate of 10,100, ,000 is- sued on December Srd. Easing their operations on the. general belief in a short crop and on hopes of large con sumptive demand, prominent bulls in this market started a campaign for higher prices. but they were never able 10 LOrce the market aDONo the nlSn rec ord of 13.45 for July contracts estab- lished on bureau day. Month after month, the bulls were forced either to transfer their contracts to more distant that the whole season may be termed 8 series of bull defeats, even the much heralded July deal ending in a dis graceful fizzle. One good effect of the the consequent bull speculation in fu- lures, however, was to hold the price of spots up until late in the season, when It became evident that the crop of 1a05-06 had been under-estimated by the great majority of persons and when prospects for the present crop first appeared fine. Middling cotton reached It's hiehest level of the season on De- cember ', 1905. when 1t was officially quoted al 12 1-Sc. We close the season today with middling quoted at the low est level reached during the twelve a5 tberaors Ths 5s Se @ Hovn of mia do cents. from which fact it can be readily seen that 1t was the producer and not the speculator wh~ profited most from the crop of 1905-06. As turn about is fair play, however, and as the crop out look at present is apparently for a yield almost as large as the year before last, when 13,500,000 bales were marketed, the new season seems likely to be nore profitable to the speculator than to the producer. It must be remembered, however. that we begin the season of lSoo-Ui with crop 1dea~ as optimistic as they were pessimistic last year. and in this case. too. the general belief in regard to the size of the crop may eventually prove to be somewhat wide of the mark. Exaggeration in this direction is to be avoided and we desire to state right now that while. accord ing to our view of the situation, much lower prices seem to be warranted in the long run, we shall not lend our in fuence or support to any attempt to force the price of cotton below the cost of production, with the attendant injurious effects that would incident- ally be felt by the trade in general.
 l4oveman & Go.