The farmer and mechanic., 1907-09-10
HARyIE JORDAN on COTTON.

The Atlanta bankers figured out that
Geogia would raise two million bales
of cotton. that the total crop would
be 12.500.oeo bales and the average
price would be eleven cents. Eleven
cents? With Atlanta bankers taking
eleven cents and the farmers talking
fifteen cents as the minimum price,
ii is seen that there IS a wide dis
crepancy thus early in the season. II
is really too soon to figure on the
crop or predict the price, for much
will depend upon the lateness OF the
fall The Improvement IN the crop
in the last few weeks in North Caro-
lima has been most remarkable, but
who will venture to predict the size
of the crop until he knows whether
we will have frost as early this year
as last?
Mir Harvie Jordan, head of the Cot
ton Association takes issue with the
Atlanta bankers and tnus gives LIS
views in communication in the At
lanta Journal:
Your three-column interview with
leading bankers and cotton flfnls OF
and headed '12,U00,0O0 Bales Cotton
Crop Assures State of Georgia Most
Prosperous Year in it's History, Whlie
gratifying from the standpoint OF
your intention to show that Georgia
need have no fear of q panic this year,
VIII, nevertheless, tend TO do harm
in preventing good prices for cotton
during the heavy selling period OF
the crop. Doubtless. the sauent fea-
lures of the interview with reference
to prospective heavy yields and that
the crop should sell at an average
price OF II cents have been freely
wired to all cotton centerS IN thlS
country and Europe.
Any forecast of the crop at this
time in Georgia or for the whole
South is the widest kind OF guess
work and can rarely be depended
upon. Although the South produced
13,5OO.0OO bales in 1906, the demand
has been SO enorm Gus and the price
of manufactured goods so high that
we have had spot prices from 2 Il
to 5 cents per pound since last spring,
and even now with the new crop COM
ing in we find the buyers actively bid
ding from II IL to II cents Tor spot
cotton with which to fill contracts.
Even with an estimated yield of
12,500,0O0 bales, as stated by the AT
lanta cotton firms interviewed this
makes the crop as compared with last
year 100000 bales short, Just how
the Atlanta bankers could have arrlV-
ed at IL cents as an average price
for middling cotton under existing con-
ditions of probable supply and un-
precedented demand and the abnor-
NAL high prices of cotton fabrics IS
hard to understand. 1t is by no means
certain that the crop in Georgia TINS
year will be as large as the Atlanta
cotton firms estimate, as reports or
damage are now daily coming in from
many sections of the State indicating
that prospective yield 80 days ago
are being reduced fully one-third on
account of drouth and boil worms.
Even if Georgia farmers do make
4 good crop and at Ii cents per pound
be able to pay up all obligations and
make some money, how Will 1t be
with the States west of the Mississippi
where in many sections, the yield Will
be so short? Georgia farmers and
bankers should stand together for the
full value of the staple and market
the crop slowly so as to enable their
less fortunate brethren in the South
west to get the full intrinsic value Of
what they may be able to save from
drouths, ravages of boil weevils and
other disasters
THE sDinners of the world have
not expected to buy up this crop at
an average of II cents, as they know
it to be worth much nr1re. If the
South does not place a high value on
the great staple crop it controls from
the standpoint Of worlds necessity,
the foreign buyers and spinners are
unlikely to pay anything like its true
value. Our people are usually too
busy figuring on the yield and pay
too little attention to true value Of the
staple There can be no over-prOduc-
ton and every bale produced in the
South should go into the market at
unusually high prices this season.
There is q world Of sense in these
statements by Mr.. Jordan and all the
cotton world will read them with
interest.