124 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



and society apparently have answered the successful effort 

 of the farmer with less dollars for a 15,500,000 to 16,000,000 

 bale crop than he was paid for approximately 2,000,000 bale 

 smaller crop last year. In the face of this discouragement, 

 with the resulting prices below the cost of production even 

 for the better grades and with terrific losses on the lower 

 grades which cost practically as much to produce, there is 

 nothing for the farmer to do but reduce his acreage and 

 produce only such quantity of cotton as the world appears to 

 desire. Failing in this method of securing profitable prices 

 the cotton farmers like wheat farmers will be compelled to 

 turn to governmental price controlling expediences, even 

 though in the past agricultural leaders of the South have op- 

 posed such methods of stabilizing prices at fair levels. It 

 appears that the cotton trade does not desire reasonable re- 

 serves as they penalize farmers when they exist. 26 



Although they are often given, neither fluctuations in 

 price per pound nor total values of the crop accurately 

 relate the average producer of cotton to the hazards of 

 the market. An index of the risk of the producer must 

 combine two figures; viz., the yield of the crop, large 

 or small, multiplied by the average price. This figure 

 may be secured by multiplying the average yield of 

 pounds of lint per cotton acre by the average farm 

 price per pound. The following table from 1909 to 1927 

 is based on the Department of Agriculture figures. 27 

 From 1889 to 1909 the statistics are compiled from Lea's 

 Cotton Book. 28 



26 C. O. Moser, Commerce and Finance, Jan. 13, 1926, p. 121. 



27 Dept. of Agriculture Yearbook, 1925-27, p. 952. 



28 Pp. 24, 26. 



