Cotton Estimate

The long awaited final estimate of cotton production for 1923 made by the U. S. Department of Agriculture placed the current crop at 10,081,000 bales. This figure, although 167,000 bales un der the Government estimate of Nov. 2, was still larger than some of the trade had anticipated, and in consequence cotton prices at first fell off somewhat on the N. Y. Cotton Ex change, but only to rise still higher when the full significance of the figures was realized. The bales with which the estimate deals weigh 500 pounds, and thus the crop should amount to 4,821,333,000 pounds. At the average farm price of 31c, which prevailed on Dec. 1, the whole crop should be worth $1,494,613,230. It is the sixth crop in our history worth a billion dollars or over, and the fourth most valuable cotton crop on record. In this respect it has been surpassed only by the 1919 crop (worth $2,034,658,000), the 1918 crop (worth $1,663,633,000) and the 1917 crop (worth $1,566,198,000). In 1916 and 1922 the cotton crops exceeded a billion dollars in value. Moreover, the addition of cottonseed and linters will considerably increase the cash value of the 1923 crop.

Among the states, Texas led with an estimated crop of 4,290,000 bales; next came North Carolina with 1,020,000, South Carolina with 795,000, Arkansas and Oklahoma with 620,000 apiece, Alabama with 600,000, Georgia with 590,000. Production in Texas is just 1,000,000 bales greater this year than in 1922, and more than 2,000,000 bales ahead of the output for 1921.