COMPETITORS OF COTTON 



greater economic independence. Extensive soil-im- 

 provement and erosion projects are restoring and pre- 

 serving our most vital national resource, the land. 



The whole Cotton Belt is becoming more self-sustain- 

 ing. The acres least suited to cotton are being planted 

 to food and feed crops. In the Mississippi Delta, for 

 example, in 1938 before the control and soil-conserva- 

 tion programs became effective, seventy-two per cent 

 of all tilled land was in cotton: today this is down to 

 forty-one per cent. On this reduced acreage as much 

 cotton is grown as formerly while there is also an enor- 

 mous production of oats and sizable crops of barley, 

 rye, lespedeza, and alfalfa which support a fast-growing 

 livestock industry. Over in southern Mississippi and 

 Alabama so many white-faced Herefords and black 

 Angus cattle are grazing that one might think he were 

 in Texas. This is all a great gain, but cotton itself, both 

 as crop and commodity, has suffered great losses. 



Thoughtful cotton men realize that the Government 

 cannot rescue King Cotton. They know that the best 

 planters on the best acres are "cleaning up on twenty- 

 two cent cotton." They realize that if they employ full 

 modern mechanization tractors to plow, plant, and 

 cultivate chemical defoliation, and mechanical picking, 

 they could "make" cotton so cheaply that they need not 

 fear any competition, synthetic or foreign. 



In their hearts they know, too, that because these 

 modern methods cannot be applied to the small, gullied 



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