1m 1880 ‘to 1920; but from 1920 to 1935 the 
cag Pet 9 percent. In many counties of the 
. er piedmont (central and north-central Georgia) 
there has been a steady decrease in acreage of farming 
land ever since 1880. In 1909 the total area of major 
ar: crops harvested was 9.7 million acres, of which cotton 
occupied 4.9 million acres, or 50 percent of the total; in 
1934, cotton made up only 25 percent of the area of crop- 
land harvested. From 1909 to 1934 corn acreage increased 
eo about 1 million acres and all hay and sorghum for forage, 
about 0.7 million; but the aggregate area for all crops 
harvested in 1934 was 8.6 million acres, or more than 1 
million acres under that in 1909. 
Ever since pioneer days, cotton has been Georgia’s 
4 principal cash crop. As shown by figure 2, from 1908 
through the period of the World War about 5 million 
By 1924, 
however, the acreage had dwindled to 3 million, and in 
Since about 130 
man-hours are required to grow and harvest an acre of 
Rig acres of cotton was harvested each year. 
1938 only 2 million was used for cotton. 
cotton in this section, a shrinkage in cotton area of 3 
million acres involves a loss of about 39 million man- 
ad days of 10-hours each. If we assume that cotton farmers 
ae work 200 man-days a year on the average, this shrinkage 
has resulted in throwing about 200,000 of them out of 
employment. Counting their families, the welfare of 
~ about a million people is directly affected, not to mention 
the truck drivers, train crews, longshoremen, merchants, 
bankers, and others whose incomes depend indirectly 
a upon cotton. During the war, the value of Georgia’s 
cotton to the farmer (seed not included) reached an all- 
time high of $312,000,000 a year. This prosperity, 
Figure 2.—Georgia’s annual cotton crop. 
MILLION ACRES OR HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS 
unfortunately, was brief; from 1920 to 1930 the farmers 
received an average of only $100,000,000 a year for their 
cotton. In 1932, the value of the crop fel] to $30,000,000, 
which was less than one-tenth of its peak value; and in 
1938, even with Government aid in pegging the price, 
it was only about $37,000,000. 
The Forest Survey figure of more than 2 million acres of 
idle or abandoned cropland, as recorded in table 3, includes 
Tasve 3.—Idle or abandoned cropland in Georgia, by survey units, 1934-36 
Survey unit | a CoP Abandoned or idle 
and ; 
6 EE eee 
| Acres Acres } Percent 
South (combined) ___._....._____- / 4, 754, 700 562, 700 12 
Gentrals =. o>: .- ee | 5,042, 400 797, 100 16 
North-ceniral.- 2 | 3,598, 300 573,700| > 16 
Se a ee 1, 348, 100 240, 300 18 
State total: /- 4-5) _-. 3 ae 
14,743,500 | 2,179, 300 | 15 
only the cropland area abandoned shortly before the time 
of the survey. It does not include the vast acreages of land 
abandoned in past decades but now covered with old-field — 
forest stands. Central Georgia has the largest area in crop- 
land and naturally has suffered the greatest losses in the 
cotton collapse and has the largest idle acreage, but the 
north unit, with the smallest area, has the greatest percent 
of idle land. Most of this abandoned cropland will revert 
to forests, unless the prices of cotton and corn increase 
materially. 
Erosion 
Soil erosion in some form and to some degree occurs 
quite generally throughout the State. Active erosion in 
