The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-15
COTTON

New York, May H-A strong and ad1 vaneing cotton market has today been met by heavy sales on the part of those who had the foresight to grasp the pos abilities of the situation when prices were lower and who, with the fatuity of the ordinary speculator, are content to realize small profits out of a situation that promises enormous possibilities.
 As l said yesterday, l believe the ad- vance in the cotton market has only commenced and before many days 11c will seem as cheap for cotton as lOc did yesterday. We know in part and we prophecy in part; but the facts of the present situation enable us to prophecy, with unabated confidence, probably the greatest convulsion In the value of cot ton that has been seen since 1903.
 In the period which has elapsed the world has enormously increased in wealth and in Its textile requirements. It is generally recognized that cotton fabrics are the cheapest form of cloth that so- oiety has as yet discovered, and the rush for cotton cloth is continually increasing. As single instance of this fact l may mention that l am reliably informed that the cotton duck, used in connection with the manufacture of automobile tires, dur ing the present year. will be the equiv alent of over S00.0O0 bales of cotton. There Is a movement on foot among the plant CTS of the south to substitute for the jute bagging previously used in baling cotton cotton bagging made of low grade cot ton. If this plan is realized 1t will in- crease the consumption of cotton by fully a million bales.
 In regard to the next crop I can not do better than quote the following letter today received from a very conservative member of the New York cotton ex- change: Have just returned from over a two. months trip south and found con ditions much the same as l did in 1905 at the same period. Toward the end of my trip visited Alabama and Tennessee and the same conditions obtained there as in Georgia. Replanting was going on all over, whenever the ground was sufficient ly dry to permit of it's being done, but ow- ing to the succession of rainfalls all over farmers were having a hard time of it, and this, together with the scarcity of seed, which Is of poor quality, has ere ated 0 condition, which, in view of the de- mand for cotton and cotton goods, is nothing less than alarming. All mills I visited recently are sold up to January l, 1908, and many into Juna. In Anderson, s. C., I found the largest mills In most places have stocks sufficient to carry them into July, and have contracted through large spot houses for the balance of the season, but there is scarcely mill that will not have to buy during the sum mer months. In hundreds of towns in the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama one can not find a bale of cotton, while in larger mill towns stocks are not one-sixth as much as at the same time last year. All old cotton as far back as 1904, has been sold from plantations, and much of the cotton in warehouses everywhere is two and three years old. I made partic- ular inquiries regarding mill commitments for goods, and the stock of cotton in ev- cry town I visited, and what l am tell ing you are undisputed facts.
 T don't believe the country can make 12, ,000 GOO bales this season, and 1t is bound to be 0 late crop and an insect crop. guessed the last crop as 100000 early in the summer, and the previous crop al II 100000, and I don't think this one can be over 12000,0 GOO, with average conditions from now on. For your information. I will also state, that only last week dry goods men informed me they can not get shipments on new business before next December and on some lines they can't get shipments at oil. I made these in- quiries in every town visited and the information was the same all over. I be- lleve you are absolutely correct in your views of the market. and crop conditions, and am satisfied your judgment will be more than vindicated before the season is over" THEO. H. PRICE.