RELATIONS TO OTHER SCIENCES 725 



and about 21 per cent is improved; but only about five per cent of 

 the total area, or one tenth of the area in farms and one fourth of the 

 area of the improved lands, is annually cultivated in cotton. If the 

 whole area in farms in this section were cultivated in cotton, it would 

 produce at least 80,000,000 bales. So far, therefore, as soil and 

 climatic conditions are concerned, the Southern States can produce 

 seven or eight times as much cotton as they now do. 



But soil and climate are not the only conditions. It requires men 

 and mules to make a cotton crop. It is generally recognized that 

 the labor used in the production of cotton is something over fifty 

 per cent of the total expense of growing the crop. This exceeds the cost 

 of labor in growing corn and wheat, and also in many manufacturing 

 industries. But statistics of population show that there is labor 

 enough available in the South to handle an increase in the cotton 

 crop such as the cotton-belt is capable of producing under favorable 

 conditions. The Negro is well adapted for working in the cotton- 

 fields, and his children are the only successful cotton-pickers known. 

 The great need is that this labor be better trained and organized. 

 Although the supply of mules and horses is inadequate at present for 

 the production of a crop of this size, they might be raised within a 

 few years. 



We come thus to the question why the South does not actually 

 produce more cotton to supply the world's increasing demand. It is 

 commonly stated that the low prices which prevailed for a number of 

 years led the planters to diversify their farming and to devote more 

 of their means and energy to the production of general farm-supplies. 

 This is true ; but when this has been successfully accomplished, the 

 planters should be in an even better position to produce the crop 

 demanded. Where then is the trouble ? Experts seem to agree that 

 the chief difficulties are the impoverishment of the cotton-soils 

 through continued cropping under the renting system, and the 

 running-out of the seed. Observation in the cotton-belt leads us to 

 believe that fully two thirds of the planters use seed taken entirely 

 at random from the public gins, about which they know nothing 

 whatever. 



It is safe to estimate that the cotton crop could be doubled on the 

 same acreage by the use of good seed and careful methods of tillage 

 and fertilization. Questions of tillage and fertilization must be left to 

 the farmers chiefly, but the experiment stations should take up the 

 question of improving the seed. 



Certain definite things should be kept in mind in the process of 

 cotton-seed development. Among these are an increased yield of 

 fiber and of seed, an increased length of fiber with uniformity, the 

 strength of the fiber, the season of maturity, adaptation to soil and 

 climate, and resistance to diseases. It is probable that cotton having 



