REGIONS AND HUMAN ECOLOGY 29 



Dallas, and Fort Worth; in the Valley, New Orleans, 

 Memphis, Little Rock, and Greenwood; in the East, 

 Wilmington and Charleston are points at which bales are 

 compressed for long distance shipment. 



The cotton gin is the typical s'tage property of the 

 southern small town scene. The whole Cotton Belt is cov- 

 ered with active ginneries. The area of greatest concen- 

 tration of cotton gins is a comparatively uninterrupted 

 stretch from North Carolina through the Alabama Black 

 Belt. The Mississippi fringe comes next. In the western 

 area gins are a good deal less numerous in comparison 

 with the volume of production. 52 This is owing to the fact 

 that the gins are of a later type, larger, and of greater 

 capacity. In 1914 gins in Texas averaged slightly over 

 1,000 bales each, while those in South Carolina averaged 

 only 490 bales. In 1915 the total number of active gins 

 was 24,547, which decreased to 15,459 in 1925. The 

 average number of bales ginned per active establishment, 

 on the other hand, increased from 526 to 1,042. Texas, 

 as would be expected from its size, leads with 3,459 gins. 

 South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Mississippi, 

 Oklahoma, and Arkansas lead in the order named. 



If the gin dates back to Eli Whitney, the cotton oil 

 mill is a much more recent factor. Cotton oil mills have 

 been erected only since the utilization of the seed, begin- 

 ning in 1833. In 1915 only about 84 per cent of the 

 cotton seed produced was crushed. The center of the 

 industry is Memphis. The distribution of the cotton oil 

 mills follows the outline of the Belt generally with the 

 tendency to localization in larger cities. 



The distribution of rural and urban population re^ 



62 ibid., p. 24. 



