Cotton

The world production of cotton for the year 1923-1924, according to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, will be about 18,900,000 bales. This compares with 18,154,000 bales the preceding year.

For the 11 months ending May 31, exports of cotton from the United States ran about 600,000 bales ahead of those for the year preceding, on better British and European demand. Nearly half this increase is due to larger British purchasing.

Meanwhile, the abnormally high prices for cotton are stimulating production in foreign countries. Egypt is expected to increase its cotton acreage 10%. Heavier planting is also expected in the Sudan and Uganda, whose potential acreage is estimated at about 2,250,000 acres. Among South American countries, Brazil has taken the lead as a cotton producer, yet Argentina has 14,000,000 acres available for the crop. But all these new cotton territories face serious difficulties. In the upper African districts, irrigation is the problem. In Brazil, the cotton area is in the interior valleys where transportation is poor. In Argentina, the chief drawbacks are labor shortage, insect pests and high freight rates. Extensive areas in Sind and Punjab (India) will require irrigation before cotton can be grown there sucessfully.

Nevertheless, the present high prices are a huge incentive in the attempt to overcome these difficulties of producing cotton abroad. Unless the American planter can overcome the ravages of the boll weevil, increase production and thus lower prices to something nearer a normal level, he will in a few years begin to encounter stiffer foreign competition than ever before in cotton production.