156 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



To the landlord and tenant, the large planter and small 

 farmer the question of credit is preliminary. After sup- 

 plies, work stock, tools, land, and men have been brought 

 together, they await the turn of the season. "Christmas" 

 lasts a long time. From the close of cotton picking to the 

 beginning of cotton planting includes a vacation of two 

 to three months. The man who grows cotton and corn 

 finds little to occupy his time except chores and attention 

 to the stock. Except for vegetables in the extreme South, 

 no crops are grown to use the farmer's labor during this 

 period. The family is likely to consider itself lucky if the 

 men-folks during these winter months are able to secure 

 employment on road work or levee repairing. For the 

 delta plantation owner it is a period of suspense and un- 

 easiness only to be relieved when the Negroes go to work. 

 The black boys drive about the country roads at a great 

 rate in their second-hand cars, go possum and rabbit 

 hunting, sometimes drink too much, and once in a while 

 get into serious cutting affrays. The orthodox southern 

 planter is likely to feel that his tenants are wasting their 

 substance in riotous living. He is torn between the feeling 

 that some of them ought to be in jail for tearing around 

 the country so, and the devout hope that none of them 

 will get into trouble with the officers. He may make no 

 effort to put a stop to their hilarities, but he heaves a 

 sigh of relief when the routine begins. 



Professor R. P. Brooks, writing from first-hand ob- 

 servation of plantations in the Black Belt of Georgia, is 

 rather severe: 



Tenants usually spend all of the proceeds of the year's 

 work before Christmas and return to the landlord for small 

 sums to tide them over the holiday season. The writer can- 

 not recall an instance of a planter who had not found it 



