A Reuter letter from New York dated January 9 gives an interesting picture of the wideness of the demand for cotton. One does not, for instance, much associate automobiles with cotton, but the interest of manufacturers in this commodity is said to be a big factor. Meanwhile shirt manufacturers are contracting for deliveries all through the current year. The report goes on to refer to the urgent representations to the British Government from the Manchester Cham-her of Commerce that everything possible should be done to stimulate cotton-growing in the Empire.
A good many conservative cotton men on this side believe that the South is making a grave to consider reducing its crop at a time when the whole world stands in such dire need of cotton and is being unwisely led by men who are more idealistic than business-like. It is quite possible that the very urgency of present needs may be the means of promoting such a widespread effort to produce cotton elsewhere as to jeopardize the South's long-boasted monopoly.
The season of preparation for another cotton crop is at hand and reports from the Lower Mis-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.