46 COTTON 



CORN SEVEN TIMES, WHEAT TWICE, AS EXHAUSTIVE 

 AS COTTON 



But it is not alone in our reckless disregard of 

 the ancient laws of breeding that we have succeeded 

 in bringing down the yield of cotton far below what 

 it should be; like a Prodigal Son, wasting his sub- 

 stance in riotous living, we have also been guilty of 

 inexcusable folly in dealing with Nature's greatest 

 gift to the farmer the soil itself. 'Land-starved 

 for ages, our forefathers came from Europe to our 

 Southern States and reveled in mad intoxication in 

 the seemingly unlimited areas of virgin soils they 

 found. Before the Civil War it was customary to 

 clear up land, grow a few crops of cotton on it, 

 then "turn it out" to broomsage and gullies, and 

 clear up more new lands for the cotton crop. The 

 old fields of the South probably cover an area as 

 large as five of the New England States. So it was 

 not mere poetic sentiment, but the deep recognition 

 of a damning economic sin that moved Sidney 

 Lanier to say : 



' ' Upon that generous rounding side 



With gullies scarified 

 When keen Neglect his lash hath plied 

 Yon old deserted Georgian hill 

 Bares to the sun his piteous aged crest 



And seamy breast, 

 By restless-hearted children left to lie 

 Untended there beneath the heedless sky, 

 As barbarous folk expose their old to die." 



Really, as we shall see further on in this book, 

 there is less reason for the abandoned field in cotton 

 growing than in any other kind of farming. An 

 average crop of wheat requires twice as much plant 

 food as an average crop of cotton, and an average 

 crop of corn nearly seven times as much. 



