COMPETITORS OF COTTON 



of it, how very few of us remember that cotton gives 

 us men's broadcloth shirts and women's gingham 

 dresses; denim overalls and khaki uniforms; sheets, bath 

 towels, and handkerchiefs; sails for ships; belts to drive 

 machinery. 



Every American schoolchild learns that cotton is the 

 chief cash crop of our Southern states. But how many 

 of our adults realize that this white fluffiness is grown 

 on fields roughly equaling the total land areas of Bel- 

 gium, Holland, and Denmark; or that it is the direct 

 support qf thirteen million Americans, one in ten of 

 all our people? That is, more human beings than work 

 in any single agricultural or industrial group in the 

 country. 



This great crop is in truth two crops: the fiber and 

 our most important oilseed. Thanks to chemical re- 

 search, this seed has become as versatile as the lint. 

 The Texas Cottonseed Crushers' Association has a 

 traveling display of one hundred and fifty-one products 

 made from what was once a troublesome waste that 

 piled up outside the cotton gins. 



Largely because the cotton plant produces this 2-in-l 

 crop, it returns to the grower more dollars per acre than 

 do any of our great field crops. The average for 1932-41 

 was cotton, $27.97; corn, $13.79; wheat, $10.32 per acre. 

 That forgotten fact bears remembering. 



It raises the provocative question: If cotton yields 

 almost twice as many dollars per acre as corn, why is 



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