Considering its climate and soil there is no such extensive area anywhere in the world so favorably adapted to cotton pro duction as the Southern States. The plant is essentially a sun plant and thrives in a warm and even hot atmosphere if sufficiently moist. As it requires from six to seven months of favorable weather for full development there should be an absence of killing frost from early in the spring to late in the fall. The tem perature should be high, and the daily range of comparative uniformity during the early grow The rainfall varies from month to month and from season to season, the average precipitation in some of the States even differing considerably. Texas, for in stance, makes its crops with an average rain fall during the season of less than three inches, while the crops of Louisiana are made with an average of about five inches. The following is the average rainfall for 10 years (1904-13) in the 10 principal States, from April to No vember, inclusive (inches) : North Carolina, 4.27; South Carolina, 4.15; Georgia, 3.94; Ala bama, 4.10; Mississippi, 4.36; Louisiana, 5.02; Arkansas, 423; Tennessee, 3.89; Texas, 2.88; Oklahoma, 3.29. The following is the 10-year average monthly rainfall during the growing and maturing season in each of the geographical divisions: ing period. It should increase from the time the seed is planted until about the first to the middle of August. By this time the plant should have attained its full vegetable growth. After this date a decreasing temperature with a greater range between day and night are favorable to the production of a full crop, as this checks the vegetable growth and induces the plant to convert its accumulated food material into fruit. During the earlier period, say in April and May, there should be frequent showers rather than heavy or continu ous rains, and the best seasons are when those showers occur at night, permitting, with a suffi cient and well-distributed rainfall, the greatest amount of sunshine. There should be an abundance of rain in July and August. Gen erally the normal rainfall in the South in creases from the spring to the middle of sum mer when it decreases, the climate during the autumn being remarkable dry and bracing. Such conditions are essential to successful cot ton production, and the Southern States are highly favored with just such conditions.
In the cotton States heavy frosts generally cease by the middle of April, and as most of the cotton is planted from 1 April to 10 May, except in the extreme southern section where killing frosts are of rare occurrence, there is ample time for the seed to germinate and appear above ground without serious damage. The average date of killing frosts in the autumn in the northern section of the cotton belt is about 1 November, and in the southern section about 15 November.
The average for the entire season. in the At lantic States is 4.08 inches, in the Middle Gulf States 4.31 inches, in the Southwestern States 3.08 inches and for all States 3.97 inches.
Within the limits of the cotton belt, wherever climatic conditions are favorable, cot ton may be produced on almost any character of soil. It is grown on light sandy soils, on loams, on heavy clay and bottom lands, the yield varying with the different types. On light sandy soils, unless well fertilized the yield is small; on clay and bottom lands the yield is good, unless the rainfall happens to be excessive, when the plants develop too much stalk and limb at the expense of fruit. The fine prairie lands of Texas are high in yield, but are often subject to prolonged droughts, while the Delta lands of the Mississippi, the most fertile in the South, are liable to overflow. Perhaps the
safest soils for the cotton plant are the medium grades of loam. Without considering their chemical composition, the soils of the cotton belt may be classified as follows: pine levels and pine hills, metamorphic or Piedmont region, alluvial lands, oak and hickory region, black prairie lands, bluff and brown loam table lands, red loam lands, valley lands and sand hills. The pine levels and pine hills, which produce about 18% per cent of the cotton crop, extend all along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from Vir ginia to the Trinity River in Texas, the width of which varies from 50 to more than 150 miles. The metamorphic or Piedmont region, produc ing about 17 per cent of the crop, lies along the border of the pine hills region and extends through North and South Carolina, Georgia and well into Alabama. The prairie lands, which generally produce the largest proportion of the crop, or nearly 21 per cent, including the black prairies of Alabama, Mississippi and Texas, the coast prairies of Louisiana and Texas, the gray silt prairies of Arkansas and the red loam prairies of western Texas. The oak and hickory lands upon which about per cent of the crop is made extends over east ern Texas and northwestern Louisiana and southeastern Arkansas to the Mississippi bot tom lands. Four counties in western Alabama and three in northeastern Mississippi are in cluded in this region. The alluvial lands, yield ing nearly 15 per cent of the crop, cover extensive areas in all of the Southern States and in al most every region in each State. The bluff and brown loam table lands lying east of the Mis sissippi Delta extend all the way from the mouth of the Ohio River to Baton Rouge, La. These lands produce about 7 per cent of the crop. The valley region of the Ten nessee River in Alabama and Tennessee, and the valleys of the Coosa River and its tribu taries in Alabama and Georgia, make about 3 per cent of the crop, while the red loam lands in the northern half of Arkansas and in south eastern Oklahoma make about 25/2 per cent.
Land According to the United States census of 1910, there were 1,714,149 farms that cultivated 32,043,838 acres in cotton and which produced 10,649,268 bales (501.7 lbs. to the bale), each farm averaging 18.7 acres and producing 6.2 bales to the farm. In the 10 principal cotton growing States there were 2,196,768 farmers, 1,421,991 whites and 774,777 negroes, or 65 per cent whites and 35 per cent negroes. This would indicate that about 65 per cent of the cotton crop is produced by white labor. This proportion however has in creased since 1910, due to the cultivation of new lands in Texas and Oklahoma, so that the proportion of the crop now made by white labor is approximately 70 per cent. Farm tenure is divided into three general classes, viz.: Owners and managers for owners, cash-tenants and share-tenants. Owners and managers constitute about 44 per cent, share-tenants about per cent and cash-tenants about 17y, per cent. As between land owners and managers, and tenants, land tenure is apportioned between the two races about as follows: white owners and managers 362 per cent white tenants 28.5 per cent, negro owners and managers 72 per cent and negro tenants 28.1 per cent. Landowners and managers operate upon practically a cash basis — so far as labor is concerned — while cash tenants pay a money rent and supply themselves.