COTTON'S OTHER CROP 



cottonseed men of the- Southwest promptly forgot those 

 worrisome war experiences; but not all. Pendleton was 

 one whose memory was good. 



About the same time, agronomists and chemists be- 

 gan saying some disconcerting things about cottonseed. 

 The cotton plant, like the nylon factory, makes its fibers 

 literally out of air and water. It is in the production of 

 the oil and protein of its seed that the cotton plant 

 draws heavily upon the fertility of the soil. 



Just at this time too, the rampant boll weevil made 

 cotton growing an extremely hazardous occupation. 

 Agricultural experts and county agents began preach- 

 ing the gospel of salvation in beef cattle and diversified 

 crops. The slogan "Balanced Farming'* became familiar. 



Fred Pendleton put together these three unrelated 

 facts: the vulnerability of the export market; the soil 

 depletion of the cottonseed; balanced farming; and he 

 built up a new idea which he expressed as follows : 



"We can't go on burning hulls for fuel and depending 

 on our foreign markets for meal any more than the 

 South can go on growing cotton, alone, depending on 

 fertilizers to make good the plantfood taken from its 

 soil. The whole thing is a wicked combination to assure 

 bankruptcy. When we ship meal to Europe, our own 

 farmers lose irreparably the feeding and fertilizer values 

 taken out of their land. We must help return those 

 elements to the soil by cultivating local markets. The 

 farmers and ranchers don't know us, don't like us, and 



63 



