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The ?U75 of ATIICULTin:; in Number 1 Note: wax Prepared by W, M. Pritchett -----— This is the first of a s-ries of weekly reports on news of agriculture, which is designed as a brief digest of agricultural news of interest to the Southwest. C O T T O N Prices for Middling 15/16w cotton averaged 30.63 cents per pound in the ten spot markets on Thursday, beeember 29, which compares with 30.59 cents a week earlier and 32.25 cents a year ago. Eotton consumption in U.3. mills through November this season amounted to 2,870,0Ci5 JaTesr 'coraparecf with 2,31*8,000 bales for the same period last season. Cotton ginned in the U. 3. to December 13 totaled lit,716,000 bales com pared with 13,h307O0O kales during the corresponding period in 191*8. For the states of the eleventh District, the fi ures for 191*9 and 191*8, respectively, were: Arizona, 398*000 and 250,000; Louisiana, 626,000 and 719*000; New Mexico, 225,000 and 216,000; Oklahoma, 539*000 and 351,000; and Texas, 5,22l*,000 and 3*005,000. l x orts for the season up through Tuesday, January 3* amounted to 1,812,000 bales compared with 1,202,000 bales last year. Korc?a is re >orted ready to buy cotton. Czechoslovakia is said to be necking to finance the purchase of 150,000,000 bales of American cotton. The CCA •ecently has authorized $8,700,000 to Holland and $30,000,000 to Italy for the urchase of now cotton in this country. Cotton -inned in Texas through December 12 was low in grade but longer in staple length than that ginned for the corresponding period ^LaaE year. /ftie grade index was 91*.7 (Middling Yhite equals 100) and compares with 97.9 for the same period last year. The average staple length was 30.0 thirty-seconds, which compares with 29.8 thirty-seconds for the same period last year. C O T T O N S E E D The Department of Agriculture has announced that the effective date for terminating purchases of cottonseed of the 191*9 crop under the current emergency purchase program has been' extended \>y the CCC to February 15, 1950. State PMA chairmen are authorized to discontinue purchases prior to that date if it is found that the seed offered for purchase does not meet the standards originally required. Cottonseed prices in Texas for wagon lot seed f.o.b. gins averaged $1*3.90 per ton last v/ee5T compared with 1*3* 0 per ton the previous week. The majority of seed being offered for sale at gins during the past two weeks has been through the PDA purchase program. Cottonseed grades averaged 99*0 in Texas last week compared with 100.5 the previous week. C O R N The government last week ordered s arp cuts in next year’s planting of This publication was digitized and made available by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ Historical Library (FedHistory@dal.frb.org). ___ :.n . _______________________________ January h> 19$0 - 2 c o m in order to prevent new surpluses. The reduction vdll amount to 11,000,000 acres, orvv-'n the acrea :e 12.9 percent belov tl;e 19U9 crop. R I C L The government has placed acreage allotments on rice for 19i>0, which necessitates a re action of 13.7 percent belo the l,31o,000 acres produced this year. No marketing quotas were thought necessary. The Ropartment of Agriculture has added the rice varieties known as R. N. and Kamrose to the v<-trieties announced on September 12 as e l i g O A e for 19U9 crop rice7 price supports. N. is produced in Texas and Kamrose is produced in Arkansas, xhe epartwent also announced the I n d u s ;on of Arizona in the area where price support on rice is available. W H E A T The acreage of wheat seeded or to be seeded in Texas for harvest in 19^0 is estimated at" ,o5,oT '/(f acres• Such an acrea ;e would be 19 percent less than the record acr> a c seeded last year, out 21 percent -renter than the 1933-U7 average. The acreage of winter wheat seeded for all purporea in the fall of 19ii9 in the U.S. is estimated at ^3,023>000 acres, a reduction of 1> percent from the previous crop. The -Inter wheat c^op in Texas is making good progress, except in nary part:; of the PonLaiidle ~ fere additional Moisture is needed. F R U I T S A N D V E G E T A B L E S Harvest of the .grapefruit crop in the lower Rio Grande Valley has been Prices obtained are said io be attractive to producers. The orange market has bven rather weak, due largely to the abundance of oranges in other producing areas. The principal ve -etables being harvested in south Texas are cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, lettuce, peppers and spinach. Supplies of these are showing their normal seasonal increase. active. P I G C R O P The 19U9 Texas pig crop totaled 2,362,000 head, or about 1 percent less than the number raised Tn 19l|8 and 11 percent less than the average for the previous 10 years. As compared with previous seasons, the spring pig crop was up 1 percent and the fall pig crop was down 3 percent. The 19h9 pig crop in the U. G. totaled 96.3 million head, an increase of 13 percent over last year* E G G S The V >DA has announced a stoj>-gap eggj price support program to bolster January The E;v?S of AGRICULTURE in RilVIEW k> 1950 PageJ egg prices ii th ! idv/est. It will purdiase dried e ;gs in January' and February in order to return an average of 27 cents per dozen for ungraded eggs on the farm. The Department * ill buy fron egg buyers who certify that they have paid producers the 25 cents p r dozen average. Farmers who themselves deliver eggs to processing plants vail be paid an average of 27 cents per dozen. The USDA announced that the 50 cents support level for eggs will be 75 percent of the new parity. The program is designed to return to producers an annual average f 37 cents per dozen for their entire output of all eggs. Yi 0 0 L A N D l: 0 11 A I R The* ool market was very quiet last vreek in Texas, and even Poston re ported no sales in Texas wool. The Texas unsold wool poundage, which was estimated at the end of November to be 17*000,O' 0 pounds, as depleted Dy some 3# "00,000 pounds by Christmas Eve and the buyers were still looking and buying. A representative of a Boston firm bon pit over one-half million pounds of 12 months wool at various San Angelo ware houses at prices anging from >3 cents to 61 cents per pound. At the end of November there was an estimated 2,500,000 pounds of nohair remaining unsold in Texas. By the end of the year, only a few scattered lots of mohair remained in Hie Texas hill country. Contractions of the spring mohair clip began in Boston last week at prices of 55 cents per ound for adult and 7 ' cents per pound for kid. The ' 5 A announced that the 1%9 wool price support program will be con tinued through Parch 31, 1930 in order 'to give producers an adai'tTonal three months in which to decide whether to seel their wool into private channels or to the Department. The extension also provides for the support of the small amount of 19h9 shorn wool marketed in the latter part of the marketing season as was provided for the main portion already disposed of. Average weekly consumption of apparel wools, shorn and pulled on a scoured basis for September, Y$Ju9, was 7,222,000 pounds, which compares with a weekly average of 7,311,000 pounds in August, 191*9 • The weekly average consump tion in Septemberi 19^8* was 9*0U2V000 pounds. F E E D M A H K E T S Feedstuff prices continued to decline during the week ended December 27* influenced principally by pre-inventory and slow holiday demand. Compared with tile previous week, wheat mill feeds were down 1.00 to $1.50 per ton at the prin cipal million centers. Oilseod mills averaged 25 to 50 cents lower bile c o m by-product feeds were firm to slightly higher. Index of feedstuff prices dropped 2 points to 211.6 compared with 230.6 a year earlier. Thefced grain price index was up slightly to 18U.I* compared with 207.1 for the same period of 191*8. V A L U E Or T E X A S 19 h9 C R O P S The value of Texas farm crops in 191*9 reached record high level of 31,522,01*3,000, which was 5 percent above the former record reported in Y9li7 The NET o f APICULTURE In O TIB f January lj, 1S6'0 Page H and about 32 percent above the 191*3 value. This was the third consecutive year that the billion dollar nark was passed. Tire largest cotton production of record accounted for 9? percent of 'the increase in value over last year despite a slightly smaller price per pound. Substantially increased values with smaller unit prices also resulted from larger crop of wheat, oats, peanuts and sweet potatoes. Smaller production with prices lower than last year caused reduction in values of hay and forage crops, and all feed crops except oats. The Increase in value of crops is attributed almost entirely to larger uantity ovcr-ali pro<faction sine'e unit p 1 ces received for all field crops and most commercial truck crops were below 191*8. P A R I T Y ? P R I C E S The HAE reported that the parity ratio - the ratio received by farmers to prices paid - fell below 100 during Une month' ended December l£ for the first time since November 191*1. The parity ratio stood at 93, down 2 points from a month earlierThe pointed out that the index of prices received, and index of prices paid by farmers for this date, are based or the original pairty formula fhich does not include wage ratos for hired farm labor. Computations based on a new parity formula provided &y t^ie Agricultural Act of 191*9# including 'wage rates for hired farm labor and the use of av rage prices for the past 10 years# will be issued during January. The index of prices received by farmers fell to 236 on December 13# the leanest point in 19i*9. xne decline' was led by drops in poultry and eggs# meat animals, cotton, and truck crops.
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