The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-02
MIDSUMMER DATA ON STATES CROPS First National Bank Re-
 views Situation COTTON IS PERFECT At the Same Time Considerable Nerv- 0usness Is Felt About August.
 Summary of Reports By
 Counties

| The First National bank of Birminr-
 ham will issue it's crop report and
 financial and commercial review to- day The review is written by Pres received from bankers, merchants and other correspondents in each county of Alabama, and owing to his success in estimat ting crops in previous years his
 forecast now will, it is believed att
 tract wide attention. He estimates Alabama's cotton crop at 1,45S,90O bales l The First Nationals review as of Att
 gust date will be published in neat
 pamphlet form and will be ready for distribution today. It will contain a
 map of Alabama. statistical tables and q report from each county in alphabeti- cal order. From advance sheets The Age Herald gives the review summary
 as follows
 As this season of the year interest centers on the crop situation, and our
 review this month is devoted almost
 entirely to a discussion of the Ala
 bama crops We began in 1909 to
 make a systematic study of crop con- ditions in Alabama and in our review of that year, issued August A. we es- tmated the Alabama cotton crop for 19O9 to be 1,10O,000 bales. Actual fig ures from the census bureau show that crop to have been 1,041,S70. In our annual review last year, issued August 20, we made an estimate of .200,0 ,000 bales for 1910. Official figures from the census bureau show that the actual production was 1,194,250 bales. Our advices this year are from reliable mer- chants, farmers and bankers in every county in the state, the number re- porting ranging from two to five in each county. A general average or
 these reports by counties is appended hereto in a tabluated form. showing the acreage and condition as of July 29, 1911, as compared with the correspond ing date in 1910. We also asked for information as to whether the crop was early or late and the amount of fer tilizer used this year as compared with last Almost without exception, the re- ports agree that the crop is early, and
  bama cotton on July 2S, as against August II of last year, tends to bear
 out the average estimate of our cor respondents that the cotton crop is IA days early.
 All counties report an increase in fer tilizers used, and none show decrease in cotton acreage. Nearly all report a substantial increase, and the condition as compared with last year is better in all counties
 A majority of the counties report an increase in corn acreage, although quite number show a decrease Corn condition is better than last year In about two-thirds of the counties. all though it is not as favorable as last year in some of the central and south ern counties The corn crop appears to be safe, and indications are that the state will produce 70000,00 bushels as against 63,OO0.00O bushels last year. Should these figures materialize, many farmers will have a surplus of corn for sale.
 Mhile our reports indicate a fair yield Of minor crops, such as oats, hay and
 peas, they will hardly equal last years production.
 Much solicitude seems to exist as to the price of cotton during the coming season. Contracts for the new crop months are already off nearly cents per pound, and the price of spot cotton has weakened correspondingly.
 While it is evident that, barring unfore- seer contingencies, a very large cotton crop will be made this year, there will ,,nouestionably be a need for large American crop, owing partly to the short age which has existed for the past two years, and partly to the reduced yield this year, which now seems probable in
 India and Egypt. Condition appear to have been more uniformly favorable in Alabama than in some of the other cot ton growing states. and in our opinion the Alabama crop will bear a larger pro- portion to the total crop this year, than is usually the case.
 The condition of the crop in this state appears to be practically perfect at the present time, but there s much nervous ness felt as to developments during Au- gust Naturally some deterioration may he expected Caterpillars are making their appearance, and are reported in R;bb Rutler. Coffee Dallas, Elmore, Hale, I,owndes, Marengo, Montgomery, Ferry and Tuscaloosa counties. The boil weevil is reported to be in a few of the extreme southwestern counties, but seems to have done no material damage.
 We submit an estimate of the Alabama cotton crop by counties, and in making this estimate, we have taken into consid- eration the acreage, the condition and the carly season. We have also taken into account the production of the various counties for ten years back, and our esti- mate for the total Alabama cotton crop in the equivalent of 5OO-pound bales, for 1911 is 145S,900 bales
 Our reports indicate that financial con- ditions are almost uniformly better this year than they were last. Then the farm CTS were heavily in debt, but they sold their cotton for higher prices than they had obtained for B years. and a large corn crop last year enabled them to re- tain more of their cotton money than usual They are, therefore, as a rule, in a more independent condition financially now than they have ever been, and in our opinion there will be a great deal of cotton held back should there be a further slump in prices.
 The census bureau has recently made public some agricultural statistics of the state of Alabama which shows that tre- mendous progress has been made in the farming sections during the past 10 years. Farms are smaller and rave increased in yalua 11e ner cent. and the report shows