170 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



bales. Each buyer mounts the wagon hub, takes a slash 

 at the bagging, and tears out a generous handful of 

 sample. When sampled by all prospective buyers, the 

 bales present a mottled and a gapping appearance. Many 

 ignorant farmers believe that buyers make a great deal 

 of money by selling all their samples. If the first bids 

 offered are not satisfactory, the farmer may take a 

 sample and hunt up a merchant, who he thinks will pay 

 a better price. If unsuccessful he may take the cotton 

 home and hold it. Cotton is also deposited in warehouses, 

 the staple certified, and warehouse receipts issued. These 

 receipts are negotiable and can be used as security for 

 loans up to about 80 per cent of the market value of 

 the cotton. 



The intervals between pickings over the field can be put 

 to a good use by the cotton grower. "Corn pulling" time 

 occurs in early November and takes almost a day per 

 acre of the farmer's time. More arduous is fodder pull- 

 ing, distasteful because of the stinging sensation the fuzz 

 gives the sweating laborer on face, arms, and neck. This 

 operation also requires about a day to the acre. 



Demanding hard labor but always welcomed, hog kill- 

 ing is something of a festival to the inhabitants of the 

 Cotton Belt. Hog killing waits on the first "real cold 

 spell" when there is no likelihood of warm weather's caus- 

 ing the meat to spoil. Stunning, sticking, scalding, scrap- 

 ing, disemboweling, cutting up into joints, and salting 

 down the fatted swine from the pen are operations likely 

 to be done with neatness and dispatch by the farmer, 

 assisted by his grown son or a neighbor. On the farm 

 woman devolves the labor of rendering fat into lard, 

 strips of fat and lean into sausage, and feet and head 

 into head cheese or "souse." Mrs. Julia Peterkin in Black 



