CHAPTER VII 



THE COTTON SYSTEM AT THE TURN OF THE 

 QUARTER CENTURY 



THE GROWING of cotton is characterized in extensive 

 agricultural production in America by four interrelated 

 factors: Cotton is produced with a large percentage of 

 expensive credit; it is often produced in connection with 

 a small percentage of other crops; it is marketed in a 

 system over which growers have developed little control ; 

 and it calls for a great amount of manual labor, much of 

 which is furnished by women and children. It is necessary 

 to consider these four elements in the system by which 

 cotton is produced. 



In so far as the production of cotton may be regarded 

 as organized, it is organized around the system by which 

 it is financed. In this connection are included the planta- 

 tion organization and the crop lien which have already 

 been discussed. The sources of credit for cotton produc- 

 tion, the number of farmers needing such credit, the na- 

 ture, the amount, and the charges for the credit must be 

 considered. 



In the Delta areas * the plantation owners secure the 

 means for growing the crop from at least four principal 

 sources : banks, wholesale merchants, cotton factors, and 



1 W. J. Carson, Financing the Production and Distribution of 

 Cotton, Federal Reserve Bulletin, 1923. The Delta has come to be 

 a popular term referring to alluvial regions of the Mississippi 

 Valley. 



