284 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



the beginning to raise as near as possible his feed and food 

 supplies and have something to sell with which to pay for 

 what he had to buy, planted the balance of his land in cotton, 

 which belonged to him when it was picked; the other man 

 did not believe that it paid to grow garden truck, corn, hay, 

 pasture, and things like that on $150.00 an acre land that 

 could make a bale of cotton per acre; therefore, he lived 

 from the grocery store and depended on his cotton crop to 

 furnish his living twelve months a year. 



5. (A) First: We have a negro farmer who owns and 

 operates 200 acres of land. He lives on the land. He has 

 always grown his feed crops, seldom buying any feed at all, 

 and produces all the cotton he can after his feed crops are 

 provided for. He has never borrowed any money but has 

 been able to maintain a splendid balance in the bank from 

 year to year. 27 



(B) Second: We know a man in the same community who 

 owns a tract of land consisting of more than 500 acres, who 

 does not live on the land, but lives in town in a good home. 

 He grows some of his feed, makes fairly good crops in 

 fact we would say about the average crop of both cotton and 

 feed stuffs, but whose living expenses have always been reg- 

 ulated entirely out of proportion to his income, and as a 

 result his 500 acres is heavily mortgaged, his home is heavily 

 mortgaged and though a man of high degree of intelligence, 

 of good habits, there is some doubt as to his ability to ever 

 remove the mortgage from his property 



6. As an example, we refer to one party in particular 

 whom we shall refer to as Mr. Doe. This particular farmer 

 began some 20 years ago with a limited capital of approxi- 

 mately $200.00 which he applied as part payment on 20 

 acres of land. From time to time he has increased his holdings 

 but has always seen fit to raise his own feed stuffs. Most of 

 his activity is confined to cotton planting and last year he 



27 Letter from banker, Shelby, Miss., 1928. 



