The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-23
ENORMOUS CROPS ARE NOW ASSURED Railroads Are Beginning To
 Get Ready PLACING MORE ORDERS Banks Getting Themselves in Shape To Meet the Demands Which
 Will Be Made By the West
 and South
PLACING MORE ORDERS
BY W. c. NICHOLAS

Hurrah! the rains have fallen, the drouth is broken and the crops are saved. The question with railroads is not whether
 they will have enough grain and cotton and other stuff to keep them busy but
 whether they will have cars enough to
 take care of the traffic that they win
 be called upon to handle. This fact has been impressed upon Wall street and finds
 reflection in hardening prices for securi- ties. The outlook for the crop as an entirety may now be regarded as eminent ly favorable. For all the hulabaloo corn was never in serious danger
 It is strictly a hot weather crop and everybody Knows it excepting some of the farmers on the stock exchange, and the expert whose continued employment de- bends upon their ability to throw scares into the gambling fraternity that likes to speculate on margins. Spring wheat is the hardest of the cereal crops and although the area will be found some what spotted at harvest time the tota, yield will be satisfactory. The season is two or three weeks ahead end al- though the crop will not be entirely out of danger before the middle of August i, is now sufficiently far advanced to give farmers and railroad managers of the northwest feeling of greatest confidence in the outcome. Frosts in the spring wheat country before September are as rare as hens teeth. It would appear that there is very slight danger of im- pairment even to the minor crops ana a no fo, be able to give more than a fair average accounting when the time for marketing them arrives. Advices that reach New
 York from the south foreshadow an enor- nous cotton crop and big yield or everything else that grows in southern soil It is going to be big year after all for the farmer-not 100 per cent big all around but way up in the smiling lfigures
 Meanwhile, there is going on a steady lrecuperation in the general business sit uation. The patient was pretty sick and there has not yet been entire recovery The tariff revision menace is still an ac tive factor for repression and depression and its importance still weighs upon the mind of the big interests and of the general banking. mercantile and industrial Interests. Solvent and intelligent people are hoping the troublous period of re- vision may be gone through with with out great damage to the broad situation and that progress will not be, severely checked by reason of the scaling down | or oppressive duties. Aside from the
 matter of tariff agitation, basic conditions l are stable and business men can look | forward with hopefuness to the future. tIt is that spirit which animates the stock market at the present writing and which
 tone so plainly manifest at this writing. Occasional furries and brief periods o.
 market disquet will be unavoidable but
 the prevailing tone is that of restrained
 buoyancy, but buoyancy nevertheless. | The banks are putting themselves in
 shape to meet the demands that will he
 made upon them by the west and south.
 and which will come earlier than usual
 on account of the advanced agricultural
 conditions. There will not be the slight
 est trouble in supplying the necessary
 funds but the banks and trust companies
 are making the impending drain an ex-
 cuse for subjecting their loans to close
 inspection and weeding out the unde-
 sirables. It is an annual process and is
 attended by more or less hardship to
 weak and over-eXtended borrowers There
 has been considerable calling of loans
 this week and more or less liouidaton l Tn consequence. The pressure was heav-
 fest in the bond division and a number
 or lines Of thinly margned syndicate hold lngs have been thrown over causing
 temporary weakness in that quarter.