60 COTTON 



HOW ORGANIZATION HELPED ACREAGE REDUCTION 



It is easy to say, of course, that cotton prices hav- 

 ing become unsatisfactory, the cotton acreage would 

 have been reduced without the aid of the Cotton As- 

 sociation ; but it would certainly not have been re- 

 duced to such an extent. For if the farmer in the 

 Carolinas had felt that the farmer in Texas was re- 

 ducing his acreage on account of low prices, the 

 Carolina farmer would have thought it a good time 

 to increase his own crop and vice versa. For "that 

 air same Jones" who figures in Sidney Lanier's 

 poem is but the type of thousands and thousands of 

 cotton growers; and we all recall how he read the 

 arguments for reducing cotton acreage and diversi- 

 fying crops 



And presently says he: " Hit's true; 



That Aisley's head is level. 

 Thar's one thing farmers all must do, 

 To keep themselves from goin' tew 



Bankruptcy and the devil ! 



*' More corn ! more corn ! must plant less ground, 



And mustn't eat what's boughten 1 

 Next year they'll do it : reasoning sound : 

 (And cotton '11 fetch 'bout a dollar a pound,) 

 Tharfore, I'll plant all cotton ! " 



With Texas and Carolina alike pledged to a 25 

 per cent, reduction, however, and with each section 

 feeling in honor bound not to take treacherous ad- 

 vantage of its neighbor's fidelity, the cotton farmers 

 of the South were moved by a common purpose, 

 worked together earnestly to a common end 

 and succeeded. When we attended the meeting 

 of the Southern Cotton Association in Asheville in 

 the fall of 1905, not ten cents, but eleven cents, was 

 fixed as the price of the crop then maturing. 



