COTTON AND REGIONALISM 9 



Social Science at the University of North Carolina. 16 

 Without assuming the position that the culture of the 

 plant has done more than condition the development of 

 the region, it is the purpose of the following chapters to 

 trace the relation of cotton to its growers and the sec- 

 tion. The presence of cotton is assumed in every study of 

 social conditions in the South, and its culture is usually 

 fitted into the predetermined categories of the investiga- 

 tion. The buyers and spinners speak of cotton in terms of 

 supply. To them the question of cotton is a matter of 

 increased production and decreased cost. To the county 

 agent and the specialist of the experiment stations cotton 

 offers a technical problem of increased production of 

 better grades. To the experts of the Crop Reporting 

 Bureau cotton is a matter of tabulation of acreages, 

 plantings, weather damages, weevil damages, and gin- 

 nings, conditions of crops that are and that are to be. 

 To the southern educator it is a matter of education. 

 Given a school term of six months, eight months, nine 

 months, all other things shall be added unto the children 

 of cotton growers. To the racial propagandist cotton is 

 simply another aspect of race, the exploitation of black 

 men by white. To the inarticulate cotton farmer, cotton 

 is often simply "hard luck." One year drought, another 

 year weevil, a next year good crops and a market with 

 the bottom knocked out of prices. Our concern is with 

 the producers. 



R. Clyde White in attempting to trace the relation of 

 cotton to certain factors in southern culture used the 

 method of correlation. 17 In eleven cotton states the 151 



16 See Bibliography for writings to which reference is made. 



17 "Cotton and Some Aspects of Southern Civilization," Social 

 Forces (Sept., 1924), pp. 651-54. 



