HOW THE COTTON FARMER LIVES 239 



TABLE XVII (Continued) 



well known. E. E. Miller reports a country banker as 

 observing that "the farm deposits begin coming into his 

 bank in the fall of a good year, piling up until about 

 January, then decreasing until spring, when the bor- 

 rowing season begins, and finally giving away by mid- 

 summer almost altogether to farmers' notes." 8 Replies 

 to questionnaires 59 sent out indicated that of the money 

 received for the 1925 crop, 11.6 per cent would be spent 

 for improvement, new machinery, buildings, and better 

 live stock, 5.4 per cent would be placed in sound invest- 

 ments, and 17 per cent would be wasted. 



The unwarranted expenditure of the higher cash in- 

 comes for cotton is found to a greater degree among 

 many of the poorest producers. An investigator of the 



68 "Cotton a National Crop," Review of Reviews, July, 1926, p. 72. 

 . cit. 



i 



