COTTON 139 



sections from developing the crop is not the policy 

 to pursue, nor will it be considered for a single 

 moment by anyone who sweats in the cotton field. 

 That argument might just as well be directed toward 

 wheat, or corn, or live stock or any other agricul- 

 tural specialty. 



The first step in cotton farming is to give the 

 present acreage the best sort of tillage possible. Too 

 many farmers make cotton at a loss. While some 

 cotton growers may be getting rich through cotton, 

 on the average farm the crop just a little more than 

 holds its own and does just a little better than to 

 pay its own bills. The crop requires much seed, 

 large quantities of fertilizer, a tremendous amount 

 of hand labor and horse cultivation — besides the 

 harvesting must be done by hand. It is, therefore, 

 an expensive crop. As the average yield is under 

 200 pounds an acre, there is no immense wealth in 

 the business. What is really needed, is not more 

 acres, but the acres now used for cotton to have 

 better care and closer attention. That's the way to 

 make more cotton. That's the way to keep the 

 supply up with demand. That's the way to keep 

 the monopoly in this country and to make cotton 

 growing a profitable industry. 



How to Help Cotton Lands. — As matters now 

 run the humus is being burnt out of the soil right 

 along, the gullies still creep in and wrinkle the land 

 and the soils yield no more, often less, than for- 

 merly was the custom. As long as cotton is planted 

 on the same land year after year, as long as the 

 soil is slovenly plowed and prepared, as long as 

 humus is denied, as long as crop rotation is ignored 

 and seed injudiciously selected, the average yield 

 will remain ridiculously low, the needs of the world 



