Arizona republican., 1920-09-06
ADVISE GROWERS Of
COTTON To CONSIDER
EASTERN MARKETS

The following letter, prepared by the
Calder and Richmond company of
Providence, r. l., Boston, Mass, Tempe
and Phoenix, is a discussion of market
conditions with reference to the cotton
crop of the Salt River valley with par
ticular stress upon the advisability of
consigning the crop to eastern mar
kets
The season for marketing your cot
ton crop is close at hand and we want
to call your attention again to some
of the marketing problems that face
Arizona cotton growers.
THE local market in Arizona for
cotton never has been and never will
be on even level with the eastern mar
ket The growers who have sold To-
cally have always done so at a sacri-
flee. Conclusive evidence of this fact
is the extreme Willingness of the local
buying concerns to advance money on
the growing crops in Salt River valley
at lower rate of interest than they
themselves pay for that same money.
They know if they can have the privi-
lege of buying this cotton at the local
market price at any time during the
year their margin of profit is suffi-
cfent to cover many small items such
as any difference in interest rate, etc,
that they may have suffered.
1T would require very little figuring
to see just what the grower has lost
when al many periods during the sea-
son the difference is as much as 40
cents per pound.
1.-THE sensational history of your
local market has been a repetition of
from a price so low as to be no price
al all to a fair price at the very end
of the season when practically all the
cotton was sold. Based on the actual
cost of production last year the local
price during November. December and
January yielded the grower good re-
turn But there should be no determ-
ination on such basis; no matter
what the cost of production is, the
grower is entitled to the real market
price.
Some of the local banking instltu-
tons have practically insisted on
growers selling when the market was
at a point where the grower was u
severe loser, in order to be protected
on two sides-to liquidate the loans
they had with the concerns loaning on
growing crops and to liquidate the
loans the growers themselves had at
their institution. To finance picking
and other expenses, many of the grow
ers have been forced to sell outright
certain portion of their crop at an
extreme sacrifice. The buyer has used
this condition to keep the local market
at the lowest possible point for months
of the selling season.
The only real protection the grower
has had is consignment. Last year the
grower, little realizing what the real
market was. did not consign in any
large volume until late in the season.
He was forced to sell early most of his
crop then later a good price-but way
below the eastern market-attracted
him to sell quickly. The latter influ-
ence was due wholly to ignorance of
real market conditions in the eastern
market where the cotton is used.
Those who did consign received for
their cotton $1.20 per pound, basis No.
8, gross weights. At the time this was
made, the local market was practically
81 or a little less, and nothing moving.
All the cotton locally had been sold
very little at anything like even 81 per
pound 1t is probably safe to say that
the average return 20 the grower last
year who sold locally was not above
rs or so cents per pound.
when the pool of consigned cotton
was being made, local offers were ru-
mored at around $1.25, but no definite
substantlations of such offers could be
found After the sale of the pooled
cotton, the local buyers reported sales
as high as s1.35 per pound completing
a one or two bale transaction to offset
the effect of the sales of the consigned
cotton.
please remember all the time the
local sales were at net weights while
the consigned cotton sold at gross
weights a gain of % pounds with
every bale sold and this gain was
wholly to the advantage of the con-
signor Please remember that the gain
in weights in transit on the consigned
cotton in many cases paid the expense
of transportation. Please remember
we only receive a stated commission