148 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



lation regarding cotton. The passage of uniform laws 

 jointly by all the cotton states would then be sought 

 in order to carry out the following program: 



1. Forbid the planting of more than 40 per cent of any 



farm in cotton, and set up boards to have supervision 

 and control of food, forage, and cotton acreage. 



2. The passage of uniform laws requiring that a crop 



mortgage to be collectable must cover a certain per 

 cent of food and forage crops in proportion to cotton. 



3. The creation of financial machinery to retire such pro- 



portion of bumper crops as is in excess of demand to 

 hold it for the lean years. 



The first provision is in line with the laws passed by 

 the Egyptian Government, 63 December 8, 1926, which 

 provides that no farmer shall plant more than one-third 

 of his tillable land in cotton on penalty of fine, imprison- 

 ment, and uprooting of the excess at the expense of the 

 farmer. The fertility of the Nile lands has notably de- 

 creased since the building of the great irrigation dams, 

 and the purpose of this legislation is to restore them by 

 crop rotation and diversification. The second provision 

 is suggested simply to give point to the first. It is thought 

 that with the acreage stabilized by the first provision 

 the third will simply take up and distribute the slack in 

 production due to variations in the weather. 



The difficulties in the way of the adoption of the plan, 

 however admirable, are such as to pronounce it Utopian. 

 Regardless of the slight likelihood of the cotton states 

 coming to agreement, similar laws in America would be 

 declared an unconstitutional use of the state's police 



63 Press Release, Dept. of Agriculture, March 26, 1927. 



