22 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



likely to be oppressed by the lowness of the country and 

 the innumerable Negro tenant shacks, each with its cotton 

 house, that stretch away into the distance. 



THE WESTERN BELT 



The movement to the Western Belt came compara- 

 tively late. Texas was added to the list of cotton states 

 in 1845 and in the statistics of 1859 and 1869 ranked 

 fifth in production. By the census of 1890 the state had 

 assumed the leading place in the Cotton Kingdom and 

 cultivation was well under way in the Indian Territory. 

 Texas and Oklahoma are regarded as the frontier of the 

 Cotton Belt, having been but recently reclaimed from the 

 long and short grasses of prairie and plains. Together 

 they comprise one-sixth of the area of the Cotton Belt. 



"The general characteristics of Texas and Oklahoma 

 are a rich and alluvial soil belt with stretches of poorer 

 land on the outskirts, but everywhere a rolling country 

 like the western prairies." 8 The cotton produced in this 

 area is likely to have a staple longer and stronger than 

 that of the East but not equal to that of the valley. 37 



The leading subregions are the Interior Coastal Plain, 

 Eastern Oklahoma and Red Prairies, the Black Waxy, 

 the Grand Prairie of Texas, and the Great Plains. 



The Interior Coastal Plain extends through Northwest 

 Louisiana, Southwest Arkansas and Northeast Texas. 

 The topography is rolling, the soil, grayish and reddish 

 sandy loam, the vegetation, pines and oak giving way to 

 prairie area in Texas. One-third of the improved land 

 is in cotton, and almost half of the farms are operated by 

 owners. An acre of cotton produces about 165 pounds 



36 Hubbard, op. tit., p. 12. & Ibid., p. 13. 



