242 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



credit. The purchasing of needed articles of apparel is 

 deferred until the cotton is sold. It is not uncommon 

 in the fall to see a tenant's whole family invade the stores 

 for shoes all around. The period after harvest at which 

 credit relations are resumed by tenants depends upon 

 their surplus after making settlement. If the yield has 

 been poor and the price low, it will be necessary for them 

 to resume credit relations at once. In such cases practi- 

 cally the whole living purchased will be subject to time 

 prices. 



THE FAMILY LIVING FROM THE FARM 



An evaluation of the family living from the cotton 

 farm is faced with an equal number of perplexities. Its 

 important place cannot be denied. Food, fuel, and shel- 

 ter come high to urban dwellers, and it simply adds to. 

 the farmer's standard of living if he can secure them 

 partly as by-products of his occupation. In estimating 

 these services of the farm home the Department analysis 

 placed the value of food and fuel furnished halfway be- 

 tween farm valuation and city prices. The rent was esti- 

 mated at 10 per cent of the current valuation of the 

 house. 



We have here again to deal with the extent of diversi- 

 fication. It has already been shown that tenants and 

 croppers not only have a smaller amount of living fur- 

 nished by the farm but a smaller per cent than owners. 

 It has also been shown that, in general, owners diversify 

 most and croppers least. To the landlord the tenant's 

 farming operations are a financial not an agricultural 

 venture. He can be expected to exact cash crops. In the 

 Texas survey J. T. Sanders m found that owners had 



63 Dept. of Agriculture Bulletin 1068, p. 19. 



