HOW THE COTTON FARMER LIVES 237 



in Sumter County, Georgia, 23 per cent of the farm 

 in cotton brings in 79 per cent of the cash receipts. The 

 farmer who grows cotton at all is thus dependent upon 

 it to a most remarkable extent for the amount of the 

 family living that may be purchased. 



The preceding chapters on hazards of production and 

 of the cotton market show the great fluctuations in 

 cotton yields and incomes. Table XVII showing the 

 average per acre value of cotton to the producer has 

 been translated into terms of annual cash incomes for 

 family-sized cotton farms of ten and twenty acres. The 

 purchasing power of cotton per pound and per acre in 

 terms of the Bureau of Labor index is also given. 



It was the conclusion of the Joint Commission of Agri- 

 cultural Inquiry of the U. S. Congress in 1921 that "as 

 expressed in purchasing power cotton is relatively less 

 profitable than either corn or wheat." ' 



The reactions of these fluctuations on the farmer's 

 budget deserve more than a passing word of comment. 

 Students of the budgets of workingmen have pointed out 

 the bad effect of alternating periods of prosperity and 

 depression on the standards of living of workingmen's 

 families. No regular planning for expenditures, it is 

 held, is possible; extravagance dissipates the surplus 

 during good times, and hard times can be met only by 

 reducing standards below minimum levels of health and 

 decency. It is likely that an income striking an average 

 between the high and low levels would lead to progres- 

 sively rising levels of consumption in clothing and diet. 



The relations that the hazards of the cotton industry 

 hold to the standard of living of the producer are fairly 



67 The Agricultural Crisis and Its Causes, Part I, p. 165. 



