304 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



The speculative nature of cotton production has car- 

 ried over into the psychological equipment of the growers 

 in another attitude, that of non-cooperation. With the 

 American growers possessing a virtual monopoly of the 

 cotton crop, it is held by some that cooperative acreage 

 regulation can be used to prevent disastrous price fail- 

 ures. "With proper organization facilities the necessary 

 facts as to supplies and consumptive requirements can be 

 put in the hands of every cotton grower in the South, 

 months before the planting season. The burden of regu- 

 lating the cotton acreage would not be heavy on any 

 farmer if cooperative action was uniformly taken each 

 year in every cotton county of the South." L3 But as has 

 been shown, the profits in cotton are cyclical and specu- 

 lative. They come as the result of a combination of large 

 yields and high prices. But high prices with high yields 

 are impossible unless acreage reductions or partial crop 

 failures occur in other parts of the Cotton Belt. To re- 

 duce one's own acreage, however, is to fail to profit to 

 the fullest extent by the high prices. Disastrous bumper 

 crops are followed by appeals and campaigns to reduce 

 cotton planting. Pledges to cut acreage, called sign-ups, 

 are secured, and optimistic publicity concerning the re- 

 sulting reduction is broadcast as encouragement to the 

 farmers. The result is that many growers, convinced of 

 high prices, do not reduce but even increase their acre- 

 age. About thirty years ago Sidney Lanier gave us this 

 picture of a Georgia cotton farmer reading a newspaper 

 plea for diversification by one Clisby. It may be regarded 

 as a not inadequate bit of psychology: 



18 Harvie Jordan in Proceedings of Southwide Cotton Conference, 

 held New Orleans, La., Jan. 11-12, 1928, p. 28. 



