

THE WEATHER AND THE WEEVIL 83 



found anywhere." 4 Such a statement fails to take account 

 of the hazards of cotton growing in that it charges the 

 accidents by flood and field and weevil, which the aver- 

 ages distribute, all to one factor, the inefficiency of 

 cultivation. 



The Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Crop Re- 

 ports, estimates the condition of crops on a basis of 100, 

 representing a normal condition. "This normal is neither 

 an average or ideal crop, but what the fields ought to 

 produce with the normal modes of farming, with normal 

 weather conditions and without unusual loss from disease, 

 insects or other adverse influences. The yield per acre 

 under such favorable, though not extraordinary condi- 

 tions, would be a normal yield, which is more than an 

 average yield but less than a maximum possible yield. 

 A normal yield for one farm or section may vary widely 

 from that of another." 



From this basis of a normal yield the crop reporters 

 send in estimates of loss resulting from various causes. 

 The losses from causes over which man has no control such 

 as weather and weevil (until the discovery of methods 

 of poisoning) have within the last fifteen years ranged 

 from 26 to 52 per cent of the "normal crop." 



Such losses in many cases may safely be counted as 

 hazards of production or in the good old legal phrase 

 "acts of God," without reflection on the industry or ef- 

 ficiency of the planter. Their reactions on the economic 

 basis of southern society have been serious and profound. 



4 Frank H. Vanderlip, Our Inefficient Acres, p. 5. Pamphlet. 

 5 Monthly Crop Report, Aug., 1918. 

 Dept. of Agriculture Yearbook, 1925, Table 327, p. 956. 



