110 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



sified system of farming. 3 As is so often admitted, cotton 

 proves the occasion of serious loss. But high prices when 

 they come remove the gloom, and Cotton the King is 

 again in high favor with his chief subject, the planter. 



In one way the risks of the market fall with peculiar 

 directness on cotton. Of the important crops produced in 

 the United States, cotton is peculiar in that all of the 

 crop must be sold by those who produce it. The only 

 use of cotton to the cotton farmer is its use in exchange, 

 its only value is its market value. Cotton thus is gov- 

 erned completely by a money economy. In fact, the lower 

 the price of cotton the greater likelihood that the farmer 

 will have to sell immediately all he has produced to sat- 

 isfy his creditors as speedily as possible. On the other 

 hand, it is estimated that only 17 per cent of the great 

 United States corn crops ever leave the farm where they 

 are produced. The live-stock farmer may sell corn and 

 oats, or he may sell hogs and cattle. Corn, pork, and 

 beef fill the family larder regardless of the price. The 

 all-cotton farmer possesses nothing that he can use; he 

 must sell it all. The risks of the market do not fall with 

 such crushing force upon the grower of corn. Cor- 

 respondingly, the need for diversification is greater with 

 the cotton grower. 



On the other hand, the cotton industry of America 

 practically possesses a natural monopoly such as obtains 

 in no other product of equal importance. American pro- 

 duction, which averages around 60 per cent of world 

 production, practically determines the international price 

 of cotton. American Upland Middling, which is expected 

 yearly to make up 90 per cent of the United States crop, 



s Op. cit. t p. 87. 



