er. Concluding cautiously,
we may admit the probability of the relations between near and distant
"futures" and "spot" (even in respect of "futures" running out in the
same crop year) indicating sometimes at least the intentional or
unintentional "bulling" or "bearing" or "spot" by "futures." But nothing
has yet been proved from these facts as to the effect "futures" are
having upon the steadiness of prices. In the case of any crop year, if
the relations which are suggested as indicating the "bulling" work of
"futures" usually corresponded with "spot" prices being below the normal
price of the crop year, or of what was left of the crop year, while the
relations which are suggested to indicate the "bearing" work of
"futures" on the whole corresponded with a relatively abnormal height of
"spot," it would be a legitimate inference that "futures" were tending
to smooth prices. However, it is made clear as the result of an
elaborate examination that the generality of these correspondences
cannot be affirmed.[10] The outcome of the whole matter is that the
investigator is still baffled in his attempt to discover what effect the
use of "futures" is having upon prices to-day. The sole piece of
evidence, from which probable conclusions may be drawn, is that three
separate measurements of price fluctuations over some forty years reveal
a growing unsteadiness of late, whether they be expressed absolutely or
as percentages of price.

Recent attempts to open up new cotton-fields.

The uneasiness caused by the excessive dependence of Great Britain upon
the United States for cotton, coupled with the belief that shortages of
supply are more frequent than they ought to be, and the fear that
diminishing returns may operate in America, occasioned the formation in
England of the British Cotton Growing Association on the 12th of June
1902. The proportions of England's supplies drawn from different fields
is indicated in the table below.

British dependence on American supplies is greater even than that of the
continent of Europe, for Russia possesses some internal supplies, and
more Indian cotton is used in continental countries than in England.

_Average Quantities of Raw Cotton imported Annually into the United
Kingdom from the following Countries in the Periods 1896-1900 and
1901-1904._

+----------------------------------------+-------------+-------------+
| Country | 1896-1900. | 1901-