SELF-HELP FOR COTTON 



delays full mechanization. This section is American 

 headquarters of the premium long-staple cotton whose 

 individual fibers measure more than an inch in length. 

 With all their manifold advantages of soil and climate, 

 of big operations and experience, Delta cotton planters 

 can meet any competition. Besides, they have three 

 aces in the hole. 



Except for their labor problem, which to them means 

 an excess, they can thoroughly mechanize their crop. 

 Though there is a labor shortage now, all are confident 

 that the Negroes, lately in war plants, will return to the 

 plantations the moment jobs become scarce. 



Second, they can expand operations. Thousands of 

 acres of good, black land are still drowned in swamps. 

 It is naturally the roughest, most expensive land to 

 clear, but I heard of several planters who are quietly 

 acquiring less desirable land and planning postwar to 

 use Army equipment that now builds an airstrip in the 

 jungle in a few days. It will be a simple job of "ridge 

 and slough," digging irrigation ditches to drain the 

 fertile muckland. 



Other longheaded Delta men are putting cotton 

 profits into tractors and reapers or blooded beef stock, 

 because if forced out of cotton, their plenteous soil 

 could grow many other crops or fatten cattle. Winter 

 oats and alfalfa are already there. Oats, practically un- 

 tended, harvest fifty bushels to the acre; intensively 

 cultivated, one hundred bushels. These are figures that 



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