COTTON PRICES AND MARKETS 11 
lished in March. Ginners estimate the quantity of any old cotton 
yet to be ginned and it is counted. The figures are given in gin-run 
bales except that round bales are counted as half bales. The chief 
significance of these figures lies in their assistance in arriving at the 
carryover, and as a final check on the December estimate of the 
Department of Agriculture. 
The commercial crop of the United States, as reported by the 
New Orleans Cotton Exchange, is made up of receipts at Gulf and 
Atlantic ports, overland movement to mills, and southern mill con- 
sumption, minus cotton taken by southern mills from ports. Other 
organizations also publish data on the commercial crop. Almost 
no baled cotton is consumed on farms, so that the average of the 
figures for the commercial crop should be about equal to or a little 
larger than those of the gin-bale crop of the Bureau of the Census, 
plus linters, though for any one year they may be very different, 
because of a difference in the marketing policy of the growers. 
THE WORLD COTTON CROPS 
The world draws its supplies of cotton from many sources. The 
area of cotton production has not reached its limits, especially in 
the great regions of South America and Africa. Problems of ex- 
pansion of production are economic rather than physical. 
Official estimates of production comparable to those of the 
Department of Agriculture for the crop of the United States are 
given for Egypt, India, and some of the other countries; but the 
trade has not in the past attached to such figures the importance 
given to the official crop figures for the United States. Reliable 
census reports of ginnings are not available for the world crop or 
even for the leading countries. The commercial crop of India is 
based on receipts at Bombay: and the crop of Egypt, on receipts at 
Alexandria. The commercial crops of the other producing countries 
are usually combined under the heading " all other." Some figures 
are available for exports of Chinese cotton, and the Liverpool 
exchange publishes weekly imports of Peruvian cotton. 
The United States Department of Agriculture and the Interna- 
tional Institute of Agriculture attempt to obtain the gin-bale growth 
for all producing areas. The United States Department of Com- 
merce and commercial factors do not attempt to estimate actual 
growth of the small countries, but rather to estimate the movement 
of the commercial crop. 
About 97 per cent of the world's supply of cotton is grown in the 
Northern Hemisphere. The planting is done mostly in March, April, 
and May ; and the harvest months are September, October, and Nov- 
ember. 7 The world movement of cotton is therefore distinctly sea- 
sonal. The cotton in the Southern Hemisphere is planted from Sep- 
tember to December, and the harvest period is from February to 
July. There are sufficient variations from these dates to justify the 
statement that the cotton crop exists at all times in all states of de- 
velopment. The distinctly seasonal character of the movement of 
the world's cotton into commercial channels is illustrated by 
Figure 3. 
