10 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



counties having the highest acreage of cotton were taken. 

 These counties represented 40.4 per cent of all the cot- 

 ton acreage in those states for the census year 1919. 

 The correlation of acreage planted to cotton with the ex- 

 tent of tenancy was found to be +.51, that of cotton and 

 illiteracy was +.099, cotton and Negroes +.123, and 

 tenancy and illiteracy +.537. In an area of high ten- 

 ancy, illiteracy, and Negro population ratios the only 

 significant relations found are those of cotton and ten- 

 ancy and of tenancy and illiteracy. Mr. White concludes 

 that the South cannot be regarded as a cultural unit 

 nor can cotton, on the basis of mere correlation, be con- 

 sidered a causal factor. 



In seeking to trace the reaction of cotton on its human 

 factors in the South, one is confronted with the necessity 

 of a unity of the social sciences. Descriptive and factual 

 materials of human geography, economics, history, agri- 

 cultural economics, and sociology accordingly are used 

 wherever found valuable. In addition to the statistics the 

 method of presentation by case studies has also been 

 found valuable. Expressions of attitudes as found in in- 

 terviews and letters, which would be regarded by his- 

 torians as primary sources after a sufficient lapse of 

 time, are also used. 



From the methods and materials of geographers the 

 facts of soil, climate, and topography may be employed 

 to account in some measure for the concentration of cot- 

 ton culture and the distribution of races, tenancy, and 

 the plantation in the different areas of the Cotton Belt. 



