62 COTTON 



In a word, it would be bad business, an unsound 

 economic policy, for buyers to take cotton while 

 the size of the crop is uncertain except upon the 

 basis of the maximum reasonable estimates which 

 must in any given series of years be materially 

 higher than the correct estimates. 



Selling in the fall, therefore, the cotton farmer 

 must dispose of his crop with the knowledge that 

 the odds are against him, and that the buyer could 

 not afford to take a supply of millions of bales in 

 excess of his immediate needs, if the odds were not 

 in the buyer's favor. 



MORE REGULAR MARKETING SURE TO COME 



Whatever plans may be discussed, the one essen- 

 tial, fundamental thing in marketing is more regu- 

 lar distribution of sales; and even if the warehous- 

 ing system does not become general, cotton growers 

 are likely to break away very rapidly from the old 

 plan of selling cotton as fast as harvested. In the 

 first place, every "lien farmer," every farmer with 

 a mortgaged crop, has had to put his cotton on the 

 market immediately. This class, as has been said, 

 is now rapidly decreasing. Then, too, other farm- 

 ers, hard pressed by adversity in the period of low 

 prices, were unable to hold their product, even if 

 confident of a rising market later on. With better 

 prices, therefore, inevitably comes greater freedom 

 and more gradual marketing. 



LEAVING COTTON EXPOSED TO THE WEATHER 



If there is anything more foolish than the policy 

 of rushing the entire crop upon an unwilling mar- 

 ket in the ninety days of the ginning season, it is 

 the way we handle the little cotton we decide not to 

 sell during these ninety days. It has been said 



