CITIES BUILT ON COTTON The location and growth of southern cities have been determined largely by their relation to cotton culture. The human ecology of the Cotton Belt would include an account of the agricultural capitals, the distribution of cities built on cotton. Cities in relation to cotton are di vided into future markets, spot markets, and points of export. A spot market may be either bona fide or used for determining difference for delivery on future con tracts. These do not include the primary markets, the name given to the interior towns and villages where the cotton first leaves the hands of the producer." For the Eastern Belt, Savannah, Norfolk, Augusta, Charles ton, Atlanta, Columbia, Brunswick, Wilmington, Macon, Greenville, lead as spot markets in the order named. Savannah, Brunswick, Wilmington, and Norfolk are also export points. For the Gulf states, New Orleans, Mobile, Montgomery, and Pensacola, Florida, serve as outlets. The alluvial regions form the hinterland for the great cotton metropolises of New Orleans and Memphis, with Little Rock, Pine Bluff, and Helena as smaller Arkansas spot markets. New Orleans is remarkable as the cotton outlet of the Mississippi. Third as a spot market in re ceipt of cotton bales, second after New York as a future market, and second as a port of export, New Orleans is a really great cotton metropolis.
The great Western Belt is dominated by Galveston and Houston, which lead the world as spot markets. Texas City, Fort Worth, Paris, Dallas, and Chickasha, Oklahoma, are also cotton centers. Galveston leads as point of export. The leading cotton points outside the Belt are St. Louis, Norfolk, and Baltimore on the fringe, Boston as a center for the textile industry, Washington, San Francisco, and Philadelphia as points of export, and New York and Chicago as future markets. The remark able expansion of the acreage in the Western Belt is shown by the growth of Dallas. From 1915 to 1920 Dallas received on the average 117,179 bales of cotton. In 1923 24 with the aid of eight steam railways and six electric lines Dallas handled a half-million bales. Three hundred million dollars were required to finance the transactions." The distribution of cotton warehouses in 1921 shows a distinct concentration in the Eastern and Western Belts, especially northern Georgia, South Carolina, and eastern Alabama. The Black Prairie of Texas also is well
supplied with places of storage. The warehouses are found "at many local markets as well as at the larger concentration points throughout the South." b0 The no ticeable lack of warehouse facilities for cotton is found in the great Mississippi River Bottoms where cotton is customarily marketed, due to the tenant system, as soon as gathered. In 1921 there were 2,735 warehouses in the South, Georgia with 775, Texas with 756, Alabama with 282, South Carolina with 269. The distribution of cotton compresses affords an interesting contrast. In the 'West, where most of the cotton is exported or shipped to New England, compresses are numerous ; while in the East, where much cotton is consumed in the local mills, they are Cotton compresses are of necessity located in the great urban centers, the spot markets and points of ex port. In the Western Belt, Houston, Galveston, 'Waco, Dallas, and Fort Worth; in the Valley, New Orleans, Memphis, Little Rock, and Greenwood; in the East, Wilmington and Charleston are points at which bales are compressed for long distance shipment.
The cotton gin is the typical stage property of the southern small town scene. The whole Cotton Belt is cov ered with active ginneries. The area of greatest concen tration of cotton gins is a comparatively uninterrupted stretch from North Carolina through the Alabama Black Belt. The Mississippi fringe comes next. In the western area gins are a good deal less numerous in comparison with the volume of This is owing to the fact that the gins are of a later type, larger, and of greater capacity. In 1914 gins in Texas averaged slightly over 1,000 bales each, while those in South Carolina averaged only 490 bales. In 1915 the total number of active gins was 24,547, which decreased to 15,459 in 1925. The average number of bales ginned per active establishment, on the other hand, increased from 526 to 1,042. Texas, as would be expected from its size, leads with 3,459 gins. South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Arkansas lead in the order named.