204 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



That the agricultural labor of women and children is 

 much more prevalent in specialized cotton areas has been 

 shown by investigations. In selected localities studied 

 in North Carolina, children worked in the field in 65 per 

 cent of 219 families, and in 75 per cent of 270 Negro 

 families. 51 In a Texas survey 52 out of 1,561 children from 

 six to sixteen, 75 per cent were reported as doing field 

 work. One-third of these children were ten years of age 

 and under, and 57 per cent were twelve years and under. 

 They averaged ten hours a day picking cotton. More 

 than half of the white mothers and 85 per cent of the 

 black mothers in each Texas county studied worked in 

 the field. 53 "To some extent," says a Children's Bureau 

 report, "the amount of rest a mother can have before 

 and after confinement is determined by the time of year 

 or by the stage of the cotton crop upon which depends 

 the livelihood of the family." 54 



It may be said that cotton culture, the tenant system, 

 credit, and the crop lien have resulted in a standard of 

 living for southern farmers of which the field work of 

 their women and children is an index. One southern jour- 

 nalist has said without any intent to be a phrase-maker 

 that cotton is the by-product of large families. 



The questions of the living from the farm implied in 

 diversification, the percentage of the family income spent 

 for credit, and the extent of labor of women and chil- 

 dren lead logically to a consideration of the cotton 

 growers' standard of living. 



51 Rural Children in Selected Counties of North Carolina, U. S. 

 Dept. of Labor, Children's Bureau Publication 33, p. 49. 



52 Welfare of Children in Cotton-Growing Areas of Texas, U. S. 

 Dept. of Labor, Children's Bureau Publication 134, pp. 23-5. 



63 Ibid., p. 44. 



5 * Rural Children in Selected Counties of North Carolina, p. 34. 



