176 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



the plantation area is larger and more complicated. 4 The 

 upland areas produce almost nine times as much cotton, 

 and a greater variety of credit institutions exist than 

 in the Delta. Small owners secure credit from banks or 

 supply stores, while the landlords make a larger use of 

 banks. The prevailing rate of interest charged by banks 

 on personal and collateral loans to farmers in the leading 

 cotton states in the spring of 1921 was found to range 

 from 6.23 per cent in North Carolina to 9.70 in 

 Arkansas. 5 The forms of security most used are, first, per- 

 sonal notes with one or more endorsements, second, mort- 

 gages on live stock and, third, crop liens. The cash and 

 share tenants secure credit either from their landlords 

 or from fertilizer dealers, supply merchants, or banks, 

 usually with the landlord's aid. The croppers, the most 

 helpless of the group, are usually forced to depend on 

 landlords and local supply merchants. The survey of 

 1923 found that only 12 per cent of the cotton pro- 

 ducers were able to finance the entire growing process 

 themselves. From 50 to 90 per cent, depending upon the 

 locality, "borrow in the spring and continue until the 

 cotton is marketed." 



Except for bank credit, which ranges around 8.5 per 

 cent, the interest charges to farmers during the cotton 

 growing season are almost impossible to estimate. The 

 difficulty lies in the fact that much of the bank credit 

 comes to the growers at second-hand through fertilizer 

 dealers, landlords, and supply stores. In North Carolina, 

 South Carolina, southern Mississippi, and west Tennessee 

 the growers secure a little more than half their credit 



4 Carson, op. cit., pp. 17-27. 



Dept. of Agriculture Yearbook, 1921, pp. 368-69. 



6 Carson, op. cit., p. 18. 



