The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-08-20
Avery's Letter

The situation in the cotton market ap- pears to be one wherein on the one hand the organized mill men are making des- perate efforts to bring about a decline so that they can buy their much needed supplies at lower prices. On the other hand, concentrated long interest holds the contracts. A strong interest, too, by the way, as it refused to be shaken out by the recent 40-point drive of the bears. If the long contracts were scattered, and h the hands of the country, might have a different opinion, but the Chicago spectators are as shrewd as the New York crowd, and while they got their cotton at higher prices than the original New York bulls, what'ss the difference If trey realize and feel assured it has an intrinsic value of 100 points more than it is at present selling for. it makes little difference to them if they get their profit at 15 cents or at 14 cents, so long as they get it. Mills are sold short of goods far into next year. There is only one way they can cover these shorts, and that is by purchases of spot cotton. they cannot spin contracts and you can stake your last dollar they have sold their goods on the basis of 15-cent cotton, and can pay that if necessary and make money, their bear talk to the contrary, notwithstand- ing. Naturally they want to get cotton as cheaply as possible, which is perfectly legitimate but they see conditions as well as anyone else and it would take
 but very little advance to find them grabbing for cotton.
 The strongest feature to the whole sit uation is the prices ruling for spots. where new cotton is moving in the great est volume Namely. Texas and Geor- gia. Houston spots, 14.soc; Savannah, 1445c; Norfolk, 14.65c. As long as this continues no decline of any consequence is likely
 News from the storm stay it struck Texas at Corpus Christi and moved northeasterly. Wind as high as 6S miles an hour was reported at San Antonio
 Other points in the path of the storm
 were not heard from on account of the
 wires being down, but wind of this velocity will undoubtedly do sreat dam age to open cotton.
 Another storm was mentioned in a wire from New York as being off the Ba-
 hamas, which threatened high winds on the Atlantic coast. but no official mo- tice of this was received.
 Some heavy rains fell in the eastern belt yesterday which are not needed. My observations of the crop from a four days trip through Talladega and Clay counties are that while cotton has a good color it has very little fruit and a good field of cotton is the exception rather than the rule. Boil weevil are increasing. and I found sharpshooters and lice damaging cotton. and much shedding. Interior stocks are very low, which offers the explanation for the &C., tive demand for new cotton. Talladega has only about 1000 bales of all kinds and grades against 4O00 last year. and l warehouses in smaller interior towns arI 1 bare of cotton.
 | My advice to farmers is to market cot ton very slowly and sparingly when their new cotton commences to move, sell only a little at time, and you will maintain values and advance the price. The average New York bear specu- lator is overlooking one feature in the present situation, and that is that the
 southern farmer was never in better fi-