HUMAN ELEMENTS IN COTTON 291 



able to adjust their farming operations to the advent of 

 the boll weevil and the Negro migration : 84 



I am going to take here four cotton farmers whom I know 

 personally, all of whom live in South Georgia. All of these 

 farmers made money growing cotton up until and including 

 the war period. The first heavy damage the boll weevil did 

 in that section was in 1919. All of these men lost money in 

 1919. At this time each man found himself facing two serious 

 problems which he had not encountered before. The boll 

 weevil ravished the cotton crop, and there suddenly developed 

 a shortage of Negro tenants. 



Two of these farmers seemed to be able to meet the situa- 

 tion and overcome these difficulties, while two of them could 

 not. 



Two of these farmers lived on the farms they operated. 

 They were brothers-in-law, living about seven miles apart. 

 Tom Simpson operated a twenty-mule farm and John Howell 

 ten mules on the home place. In 1925 Mr. Simpson was 

 operating twenty-four mules and making money, while Mr. 

 Howell had dropped down to five mule operation and was 

 losing each year. Both of these farmers grew enough grain 

 and hay for home consumption. Both have enough hogs each 

 year to give them enough meat for the family use, and both 

 have good gardens, several milk cows and a farm flock of 

 hens. Mr. Howell usually sells a little surplus hogs, eggs, 

 butter, and vegetables. Mr. Simpson has plenty for home 

 consumption but does not sell any. 



The chief difference between their farming methods in 

 1925 was that Mr. Simpson operated his entire farm with 

 riding cultivators. Per acre in cultivation he has just one-half 

 as many tenants as he had in 1919 and he has never had a 

 tenant since starting operating riding cultivators to fail to 



84 Letter from agricultural agent of a southern railroad, May, 

 1928. 



