CHAPTER VI. 
THE COTTON BELT. 
By Prof. Eugene A. Smith. 
[Maps I and II.] 
A.— GENERAL FEATURES OF THE COTTOTT STATES. 
In this region arc Included North and South Carolina, Georgia, Flor- 
ida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, the eastern parti of Texas and the 
Indian Territory, Arkansas. Southern Missouri, Tennessee, and parts of 
Kentucky and Virginia. To tlie.se 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. 
Clhiatk. — Wind*. — As regards the direction of the prevading winds, 
the cotton States may be. arranged in four groups. 
The first of these includes Texas, Arkansas, and the Indian Territory, 
in winch 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 — North 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 Mexico. The amount 
of yearly rainfall varies between the extremes of 28 and G4 inches. 
Over the greater part of this area it varies between 40 and GO inches. 
The densest part of this rain distribution is over the Mississippi delta 
and vicinity, reaching the maximum of 04 inches in Southeast Missis- 
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