276 SOILS AND PLANT LIFE 



sippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas constitute what is 

 known as the Cotton Belt. There are a number of reasons 

 why this part of the country has become the leading cotton- 

 producing section of the world : 



(1) The cotton plant thrives best in a climate where the 

 temperature is uniformly high for four or five months after 

 the seed is planted, followed by two or three months of 

 cooler weather. These temperature conditions prevail 

 in the Cotton Belt. 



(2) The cotton plant thrives on clay and silt loam 

 soils, which are the predominating types in this region. 



(3) The cotton plant makes its best yield when the 

 rainfall is comparatively heavy and well distributed during 

 the growing season, followed by rather dry weather during 

 the picking season. The weather records show that the 

 Cotton Belt receives its rainfall in about this way. 



(4) A cotton crop requires a great deal of hand labor. 

 Cheap and efficient help can be secured in this region. 



(5) Owing to the fact that it is so largely exported, 

 the crop requires adequate facilities for transportation. 

 Railroads and steamships quickly move the enormous 

 number of bales grown in the cotton states from the 

 various points of shipment. 



209. The Cotton Plant. — For those persons who live 

 where cotton grows, no description of the plant is necessary, 

 while for others it may be compared with another familiar 

 plant, a noxious weed, which belongs to the same family. 

 The Indian mallow, butter print, or velvet leaf, as it is 

 variously called, belongs to the mallow family, to which 

 also the cotton belongs. 



Both plants have a strong, deep tap root with finer 

 lateral ones spreading in all directions, often to a distance 

 of three or four feet from the main root. Both have 



