The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-07
FURTHER ADVANCE
 IN COTTON MARKET
Alleged Famine Conditions Ex-
 pected to Boost Prices
BULLS ARE CONFIDENT
creased Importance This Weck--A Crop Under 12.500 ,o0O Bale. win
 Prove a Calamity

New Orleans. March 6-,rhe develop ments of the last week in the cotton mar ket were taken by the trade 10 emphasize two things-the growing strength of the statistical position and the importance of the crop that will soon be planted. Bulls OH the weel. end were confident. in spite of the advance of only to points for the week on the more active months .har stood as the result of their work. They predicted a further advance this coming week on the growing appreciation of what they consider to be famine conditions. The bears, on the other hand. gave out as their convictions that the market was overbought ard that the leading bulls had sold a great part of their holdings, leaving smaller traders to carry too much long cotton. This state of affairs, they contended. would give them the balance Of power during the week to come
 During the next few days the move ment will have considerable to do with the course of the market. It is now time for cotton to find it's way to ports from the plantations in readiness for flrst-half of March shipments. This ought to mean an increase in the number of bales com ing into sight. Such an increase would be seized upon as a bearish argument by the shorts, fallacious though it might be, and heavy receipts will mean temporarily lower prices. according to market letters from commission houses. A movement as small as the movement of this last week will infiame bullish enthusiasm Bulls .1, l. become very nervous over their supplies Toward the week end they sent out liter ature to the effect that many southern mills have only a months supply of raw cotton on hand
 The weather is bound to take on in creased importance this next week. Dur ing the last few days the western portions of the cotton belt have been reporting cutie general planting of corn, and al though 1t is still very early it will not he surprising to hear of the first planting of cotton in the earliest districts of the oelt this week. High prices are hurrying farmers everywhere into completing their planting preparations, with the idea Of putting seed into the ground at the earliest possible moment. The importance of the weather as a market factor at this very early date is due to the deep-rooted belief of the bears that the largest crop of cotton ever known is inevitable this season, with normal weather, because of the high prices that have ruled through out this present season, and, on the other hand to the claims of the bulls that the world is bare Of supplies of cotton and cotton goods, that a crop of anything under 2,500,0t0 bales will be 0 caalmity and that the deficiency in rainfall In the western belt and the general tendency all over the south to diversity crops is against an es cessive yield from the very start of the crop Should the drouth in Texas con tinue, tne bulls will receive encourage nent that will probably cause them to broaden their operations especially in the fall months. but should general rains fall in the west, the bears will probably at tempt to carry out their threats to force more liquidation from the bull side.
 Professional traders and especially soalpers say that the weather and statis- tics will vic with each other in the inr- mediate future, as market factors of the first importance.