HOW THE COTTON FARMER LIVES 219 



schools, cement roads, and painted homes with cotton; 

 it isn't the thing to trade for silken hose, automobiles, 

 radios, washing machines, farm lighting systems, and 

 bath tubs. We've got to replace cotton with something 

 more profitable or get off the earth." 2 



STUDIES OF THE COTTON FARMER'S STANDARD OF 

 LIVING 



Set over against opinions as to how the cotton farmer 

 lives, we have the studies done by the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture and other research groups on 

 rural standards of living. These studies have been under- 

 taken in many of the divisions of the United States, but 

 the returns from southern states are tabulated separately 

 and can be compared with those from other sections. 

 Variable factors in the analysis are the levels of tenure, 

 the races, and the extent to which southern farmers are 

 cotton farmers. Enough separate tabulations have been 

 made for landowners, share renters, and for white and 

 black farmers to show the general trends. The extent 

 of diversification may be judged from the ratio of food 

 furnished by the farm to living purchased. Both of these 

 factors are given and furnish valuable material for study. 

 The variations in living standards between the different 

 areas can be shown by citing studies from the eastern, 

 western, and Gulf states. 



In 1926 E. L. Kirkpatrick published the results of a 

 study of the farmer's standard of living carried on over 

 a period of years by the Department of Agriculture in 

 cooperation with twelve colleges and universities in eleven 



21 Elizabeth City (N. C.) Independent, Oct. 1, 1926. The writer 

 is aware of the delightful impropriety of calling W. O. Saunders a 

 country editor. 



