THE PRESENT COTTON SYSTEM 183 



as well mean that many of the farm families who do not 

 produce these things are also unable to buy them. 



A valuable index of the extent of specialized cotton 

 farming was furnished by a special tabulation of the 

 1900 Census. It was found that at least 40 per cent of 

 their income was derived from cotton by 19 per cent of 

 the farms in the United States. 21 There were 1,071,545 

 of these specialized cotton farms in the South, forming 

 52 per cent of all the farms in the ten chief cotton states. 



Another index of diversification is furnished by the 

 percentage of farms growing specified crops. The year 

 1919 may be taken as a season in which southern farm- 

 ing was supposed to be well diversified, and the 1920 

 agricultural census may be analyzed in regard to farms 

 growing certain products. In the ten chief cotton states 

 there were 2,550,407 farms, with 92,645,980 acres of im- 

 proved land, on which lived 13,367,407 persons. The aver- 

 age number of acres in crops on each farm was thirty- 

 six; excluding Texas and Oklahoma it was twenty-seven. 

 Seventy-three per cent of all farms grew cotton, produc- 

 ing 11,376,130 bales on 36 per cent of the crop land area 

 in the ten states. 



The percentage of farms growing specified crops is 

 given in the following table : 22 



21 Census, 1900, V, Part I, liii. This is the latest agricultural 

 census which classifies farms according to principal source of 

 income. 



22 This and the following table compiled from 1920 Census, V, 

 729-878. See Foodless Farms, E. J. Bodman. Leaflet. 



