HOW THE COTTON FARMER LIVES 249 



from 1,020 in 1924 to 1,850 in 1926, and Dr. Gold- 

 berger 76 estimated from 2,300 to 2,500 during 1927. 

 The cases during the same period, it is estimated, in- 

 creased from 20,000 in 1924 to 45,000 or 50,000 in 

 1927. Crop failures due to the overflow thus operated 

 as a causal factor. 



Much has been done and is still being done to improve 

 dietary habits in cotton areas, but many of the white 

 and black cotton growers live, during periods of low 

 prices, dangerously near the level of John Charles Mc- 

 Neil's "Tar Heel": 



"Oh, I gits my stren'th frum white-side meat, 

 I sops all de sorghum a nigger kin eat, 

 I chaws wheat bread on Saddy night, 

 En Sunday's when my jug gits light." 



Some figures on housing have been given in connection 

 with living furnished by the farm. The houses of the 

 higher level groups in the South are not equal to those 

 of New England and the Middle West in regard to water 

 supply, electric lighting, and home conveniences. Greater 

 differences exist in housing within the Cotton Belt. A 

 survey 77 in a Georgia county found the value of the 

 white tenant's house to be about half that of the white 

 owner's ; the houses of black owners were valued at 46 

 per cent of those of the white owners, and the Negro 

 tenants at 26 per cent. For the same groups the black 

 tenants had the greatest number in the family, and the 

 white owners the smallest. 



Descriptions of these homes are to be met with in 



78 Pellagra in the Mississippi Flood Area, p. 5. 

 " Dept. of Agriculture Bulletin 1034, p. 36. 



