Evening star., 1927-11-08
COTTON ESTIMATE
OF GREAT IMPORT
Price Growers Get for Un-
sold Part of Crop Hangs on
TomorroW's Figure.
BY j. G. ROYLE.
Special Dispatch to The Star.


NEW YORK, November S.-The
cotton growers of America today
have something like 100000 bales of
the 1927 crop still to sell. The price
they obtain for this cotton will de-
pend to no small degree on the Gov
ernment estimate of the crop and the
ginning report. which will be made
tomorrow.
The South is almost q unit in be-
lieving that this estimate will certain
ly not be larger than the total of
1858, 900 bales forecast a month ago.
Hundreds of good judges believe the
gross will be considerably less than
this previous estimate. The growers
estimate that between 9,S00,0 and
10 900 900 bales of the crop were
ginned to November i and fully so per
cent of this amount has not passed
out of the hands of the growers.
The spinners and the cotton mer-
chants who buy on call and wait for a
favorable opportunity in the market
to buy in their hedges and thus fix
the price on the cotton, both on call
and hedges, for 4her account, are
hoping that the Government report
tomorrow will lower the market. The
South is very bullish and holds the
clined to stand pat and wait for the
spinners to start buying.
Marketed for Less.
The farmers themselves feel that
the cotton already sold has been
marketed for probably a quarter of
billion dollars less than would
have been received if the Depart
ment of Agriculture had refrained
from making any comment as to the
probable trend Of prices. They also
cite the controversy between Secre-
tary of Agriculture Jardine and Sec
retary Hester of the New Orleans
Cotton Exchange as to the carry
over from the 1926 crop. Secretary
Jardine, it is felt. practically has re-
futed his big figures of a carry over
of 100000 bales. by his statement
that So per cent of the figures on
which this total was based were
taken from private sources and were
not official.
If the Department of Agriculture
reduces it's previous estimate, this
development in the controversy over
the carry-over may prove helpful to
the market for the remaining un-
picked. unginned. and unsold cotton,
according to Southern experts.
Preliminary figures on world con-
sumption of American lint cotton are
expected to show new high record,
and according to some recognized eX-
perts the amount available this year
for American spinners' taking and for
export will be only around 15,S00,00
bales. They say that if Europe and
Asia took every bale of cotton left by
the American spinners their supply
would be 100000 bales more than the
amount they imported last year.
Taking Advantage Of Price.
This is having a decided bearing on
the situation of the textile mills. One
company in New England, for ex-
ample has recently increased its divi-
dend rate from $S to $40 share. An
other concern, which has not taken
equal advantage of the cotton price
situation, has been forced to reduce
wages by 10 per cent.
Still another textile company which
some months ago was about to aban-
don it's plant in Massachusetts showed
profit of $410.405 for it's current ffs-
cal year as against a deficit of $649,-
988 "a year ago. The management ex-
plains that the surplus was provided
by the rise in raw material prices and
by profit on inventories. Some textile
manufacturers who have been COM
planning bitterly over heavy inven-
tories of cheap cotton goods are now
nightly glad that they have them.