The Outlook for Long Staple 
Cotton 
By DAVID R. COKER 
A RECENT DISCOVERY 
Less than a year ago it became known to the producers 
of automobile tires and fabrics that the South was making 
some cotton which was at least as good for the production of 
heavy duty truck and bus tires as the long stapled Egyptians 
that they had been largely using. This season there has been 
an active demand from a number of tire fabric mills for cot¬ 
tons (mostly of our Wilds variety) of about 1*4" staple. Cot¬ 
ton suitable for heavy duty tires (say 1% 2 " to 1% 6 ”) could 
today, January 15, be sold at 16 to 20 cents, while short cot¬ 
ton of the same grade would bring about IOV 2 cents. 
ONLY 6,100 BALES 
According to the latest estimate of the United States Bu¬ 
reau of Agricultural Economics, there were ginned to De¬ 
cember 1, 1933, 12,103,400 bales of American upland cotton 
against 11,630,700 to December 1 last year. Of these amounts 
only 6,100 bales this year were 1*4" and longer, and only 
5,400 bales were of this length last year. 
I am without knowledge of the amount of foreign long 
staple cotton spun by American mills this year, but the Bureau 
reports that 81,697 bales of Egyptian and Peruvian cotton 
were spun in this country during the season 1931-32, and I 
know that a large percentage of this cotton was 1 %" and 
longer. Every bale of such cotton was brought in over a seven- 
cent per pound tariff—$35.00 per bale. 
As this country consumes every year a considerable quan¬ 
tity of 1 %" and longer cotton, and as government statistics 
show only 6,100 bales of American uplands and 4,700 bales 
of American Egyptian ginned up to December 1, it is evident 
that a large quantity of foreign staples must be imported to 
supply the deficiency in production of longer length cottons 
in the United States. 
