12 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



of cotton lint is exceeded by the value of corn, hay, and 

 wheat crops for the whole United States, but when the 

 value of cotton seed is included cotton ranks second only 

 to corn. 5 In our export trade the value of cotton far ex- 

 ceeds that of any other commodity. 6 "It is the chief and 

 often almost the only source of income to a large propor- 

 tion of the farmers in the Southern States." 7 



The Cotton Belt is not one but many. Within this area 

 differences in climate, rainfall, altitude, character of the 

 soil, and history have given rise to subregions of cotton 

 culture. These regions differ rather widely in the spatial 

 distribution of what may be called human factors black 

 men, white men, share croppers, share tenants, small own- 

 ers, and planters. Any adequate analysis of these regions 

 would include the distribution in terms of regions, of 

 population, races, types of tenure, domestic animals, 

 cities, buildings, and machines devoted to cotton culture. 

 This description of spatial distribution of man and the 

 artifacts of his civilization in relation to cotton lands is, 

 I take it, the human ecology of the Cotton Belt. 



THE PLANT 



"Cotton is the lint or fine fiber which grows on the 

 seeds of plants belonging to the genus of gossypium,. 

 Wild species of gossypium are found in tropical regions 

 of both hemispheres, and there are hundreds of cultivated 

 varieties, differing in plant characters as well as in the 

 length, strength, and fineness of fiber. Thirty-eight prin- 



6 A. M. Agelasto, et. al., "The Cotton Situation," Separate No. 

 879; also in Dept. of Agriculture Yearbook, 1921, p. 323. 



6 Ibid., p. 324. See also J. Russell Smith, North America, p. 237. 

 T "The Cotton Situation" p. 324. 



