178 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



Fertilizer credit is likely to come at a higher rate. It 

 may be secured through planters, merchants, or fertilizer 

 dealers. In his study Eutsler found that 88 per cent of 

 the Negro farmers from whom he secured records bought 

 fertilizer on time. Their average fertilizer bill was $254, 

 and the excess of time prices over cash prices was found 

 to equal from 35 to 39 per cent interest, depending on 

 the sources of the credit. 12 



There are two ways of looking at interest charges as 

 high as 25 per cent on advances to cotton growers. They 

 may be regarded as a species of merciless extortion by 

 which the merchant may soon become wealthy. One 

 writer 13 has called the credit and crop lien system "legal- 

 ized robbery" and says that the borrowers, "cheated in 

 the making of their contracts and in purchasing neces- 

 sities . . . have been but the prey of sharks and harpies, 

 bent upon keeping them in a state scarcely better than 

 that of slavery." On the other hand, such high interest 

 rates may be regarded as inherent in the speculative na- 

 ture of cotton growing. It has been observed that many 

 credit merchants fail while but few grow rich. R. B. 

 Eutsler has offered an explanation of high interest rates 

 in terms of the speculative risk involved : 



Merchants ordinarily furnish fertilizer, equipment, seeds, 

 and cash in addition to merchandise for consumption. Under 

 such a system the merchant has assumed practically all of 

 the risk for the success of the crops of the farmer to whom 

 credit is extended. The only security available is a lien on 

 the crop to be planted and grown during the same period 

 in which the credit is granted. The risks which the merchant 



Ibid., pp. 27-31. 



13 Scott, Negro Migration During the War, pp. 92-93. 



