84 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 

 THE WEATHER 



Until the appearance of the boll weevil the weather 

 figured as the chief factor of the risks of nature likely to 

 make or break the cotton farmer. Most planters would 

 agree, no doubt, with the statement of one that "the 

 cotton plant is the most tender plant that grows. It is 

 susceptible to more disasters and requires more of human 

 manual labor to produce it than anything else." 7 



On the other hand, the disasters that occur to cotton 

 may be regarded as due to the unusually severe condi- 

 tions which it has to face. An expert of the United States 

 Weather Bureau writes : 



Cotton, though a sensitive plant, is of all summer-growing 

 crops of the South about the least affected by ordinary 

 changes in the weather. Its long period of growth, fruiting, 

 and maturity affords it ample opportunity to recover from a 

 number of temporary set-backs. During the protracted season 

 from planting in April to the completion of the harvest in 

 November, it is exposed to many varieties of weather and it 

 seems to endure the bad as well as enjoy the good. 8 



Owing either to the delicacy of the plant or the vagaries 

 of the American climate, reductions from full yield per 

 acre due to weather have varied in the period from 1909 

 to 1925 from 13 to 29 per cent. 



The most favorable weather conditions for cotton have 

 been thus summarized by J. R. Marbury, meteorologist: 



7 Representative Burleson of Texas at a hearing before the 

 House Committee on Agriculture, Dec. 19, 1905. 



8 J. R. Marbury, "Relation of Weather Conditions to Growth 

 and Development of Cotton," Dept. of Agriculture Yearbook, 1904, 

 p. 141. 



