134 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



other states are selling cotton below cost of production 

 the newer regions continue to operate on a margin of 

 profit. 



Again Texas and Oklahoma have made cotton farming 

 more hazardous for growers in other states because the 

 variations in their yields are so great as to increase 

 price fluctuations. Thus from 1925 to 1926 Texas with 

 only a 4.2 per cent increase in acreage, from 17,608,000 

 to 18,363,000 acres, increased her crop 41 per cent, 

 from 4,163,000 to 5,900,000 bales. In the same period 

 Oklahoma with a 0.6 per cent decrease in acreage, from 

 5,214,000 to 4,912,000 acres, had a 15 per cent increase 

 in production, from 1,691,000 to 1,950,000 bales. 43 These 

 variations are due to the extreme danger of droughts 

 in the West as already discussed. In this area the effects 

 of the drought are increased by the blowing of the loose 

 sandy soil which occurs during dry weather. 



The crop of 1925 was grown under drought conditions ; 

 the season was ideal in 1926, and without perceptible 

 increase in acreage over the preceding year the Western 

 Belt pushed the cotton market to its lowest level since 

 1914. Such fluctuations defy cotton conventions and 

 acreage restriction agreements; they are beyond the 

 power of man to foresee and modify. The western farmers 

 have thus unwillingly added to the hazards of cotton 

 production both for themselves and for the growers who 

 must compete with them. 



When one turns from the fluctuations of cotton pro- 

 duction and the cotton market to trace the effects of 

 the cotton cycle on the South, he is likely to find that 

 he has made a transition from economics to journalism. 



43 See "Cotton Production," Dept. of Agriculture Yearbook, 1926. 



