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 ! 
Next year they'll do it : reasonin's sound : 
(And cotton '11 fetch 'bout a dollar a pound,) 
Thar fore, I'll plant all cotton I " 
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. 
