HUSBANDRY: 8½¢ Cotton

For Soviet Russia the conservative, cotton-growing South has no love, is glad the State Department accords it no recognition. Yet last week most Southern cotton planters wished the U. S. and U. S. S. R. were on better diplomatic and commercial terms. Amtorg Trading Corp., the Soviet’s commercial agent in the U. S., offered to buy 250,000 of the Federal Farm Board’s 1,300.000 bales of cotton. Though such a sale would greatly relieve the Board, possibly up prices, the Amtorg offer was rejected chiefly because the U. S. Government cannot do business with an unrecognized power.

Last week the Department of Agriculture announced that this year’s cotton acreage had been cut 10%. Expecting a bigger reduction, cotton traders were disappointed. Prices fell ½¢ per Ib. In some spot markets of the South last week cotton was selling at less than 8½¢ per Ib. or about one-half of what the Farm Board paid for its holdings.