HUMAN ELEMENTS IN COTTON 281 



Set off in contrast are the cases of farmers who have 

 prospered amid the fluctuations of cotton by growing a 

 diversity of food and forage crops with poultry and 

 live stock. The advantage of diversification is shown by 

 the case of (1) a Negro owner of a small farm in Ala- 

 bama, (2) two North Carolina small owners, (3) two 

 contrasting cases from Arkansas, (4) two purchasers of 

 cut-over timber lands from the same state, (5) cases 

 from Mississippi of absentee and at home farming, (6) 

 a large scale planter in Alabama, and (7) a scientific 

 agriculturist in Mississippi. 



1. John Griffin is a Negro farmer, who lives about four 

 miles from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, about fifty years of age; 

 and he is a man of good character and reputation, well liked 

 and a good citizen. A few years ago John was a small cotton 

 farmer and borrowed money from the bank to make his crop, 

 generally $400.00 to $500.00. He usually was able to pay 

 up and borrow more the next year, but he was not getting 

 ahead. He was advised to get some milch cows and sell milk. 

 A few cows, milked by his wife who also marketed the milk, 

 did not lessen his farming operations. The dairy business 

 was a side line. These few cows in a short time paid for 

 his farming operations and left him his crop free. He grad- 

 ually increased his herd until now he has about seventy head, 

 among them some registered cows and a registered bull. 



At this time John Griffin owns about one hundred sixty 

 (160) acres of good land, has money in the bank and loaned 

 out. 23 



2. (A) A man who cannot read nor write, not even his 

 name, bought a farm twenty years ago from a man who 

 sold it because the farm was so poor that he could not make 

 a living on it. The man who bought this place had worked 



23 Letter from an Alabama banker, March, 1928. 



