CH APTE R VI 



THE ootto:n^ belt. 



By Prof. Eugene A. Smith. 

 [Maps I and II.] 



A.-GENERAL FEATURES OF THE COTTON STATES. 



In this region are included l^ortli and South Carolina, Georgia, Flor- 

 ida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, the eastern parts of Texas and the 

 Indian Territory, Arkansas, Southern Missouri, Tennessee, and parts of 

 Kentucky and Virginia. To these may be added, in California, the re- 

 gion between Merced and Kern in the southern part of the State, and 

 Yuba, Sutter, and Colusa Counties in the northern part. 



Almost the whole cotton crop is thus produced in the area included 

 between the twenty-ninth and thirty-seventh parallels of north latitude, 

 and between the seventy-sixth and one hundredth lines of west longi- 

 tude. 



Climate. — Winds. — As regards the direction of the prevailing winds, 

 the cotton States may be arranged in four groups. 



The first of these includes Texas, Arkansas, and the Indian Territory, 

 in which the prevailing winds during the summer are from the south- 

 east, south, and southwest, and from the north and northwest during 

 the winter months. The second includes the States of Kentucky and 

 Tennessee, lying between the Mississippi and the Appalachian chain, 

 in which the prevailing direction of the winds, both winter and summer, 

 Is from the southwest. The third includes the States of the Atlantic 

 slope — I^orth and South Carolina and Georgia — whose prevailing sum- 

 mer winds are from the southwest and those of the winter from the 

 northwest. The fourth section, including the Gulf States, Louisiana, 

 Alabama, and Florida, partakes of the characters of the other regions 

 surrounding it; and, while the prevailing winds are southeasterly in sum- 

 mer and northeasterly in winter, the directions are very nearly evenly 

 balanced, except in some parts of the Florida peninsula, where there is 

 a very decided prevalence of easterly winds throughout the year. 



Rainfall. — The supply of moisture for the rainfall over the cotton 

 States comes almost exclusively from the Gulf of Me'xico. The amount 

 of yearly rainfall varies between the extremes of 28 and 64 inches. 

 Over the greater part of this area it varies between 40 and 60 inches. 



The densest part of this rain distribution is over the Mississippi delta 

 and vicinity, reaching the maximum of 64 inches in Southeast Missis- 



59 



