"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'll fetch 'bout a dollar a pound Tharfore I'll plant all cotton." Thus has arisen an attitude of suspicion that is the very opposite of the cooperation needed to stabilize the cotton acreage.
Cotton impinges in yet another manner upon the cul ture patterns of the South. The seasonal and cyclical nature of the money income not only serves to give the cotton grower a shifting standard of living, but also serves to prevent him from acquiring habits of thrift. It has been shown that the money income from cotton has ranged from $35 to $200 a bale and from $10 to $60 an acre. Without an income which can be counted upon, it is almost impossible for a family to plan and live according to a budget. The consumption of goods by the family thus tends to run in cycles corresponding to those of cotton prices rather than to be equalized over a period of years. The cotton farmer is too much given to alternate periods of splurging and deprivation.
A steady and regular flow of income, even if low, al lows for saving and for planning consumption by the use of the family budget. It is thus that families of industrial wage-earners of moderate income have accepted the prac tice of installment buying. By saving over a period of time from unpretentious but steady wages, urban fam ilies have succeeded in providing themselves with many of the artifices of civilization. However many objections
exist in regard to unwise consumption under the stimulus of installment salesmanship, one must admit that such buying can be used for wise planning of the home, par takes of the nature of the budget, and is made possible by a steady even if low income.
Such purchasing over long periods of time is not pos sible with the cotton farmer. He stands to make or lose his income all in one lump at one time. In the Cotton Belt luxuries are likely to be bought on the spur of the mo ment, during a good season in cotton, and paid for by deprivation in next year's living. Planters are apt to lament the phonographs, sewing machines, organs, player pianos, and automobiles that their tenants buy during seasons of prosperity, as evidences of inherent traits of lack of judgment and extravagance of Negroes and poor white people. The culture trait, however, draws an origin from the cyclical nature of cotton itself. A period of de privation during the growing period is relieved by a sup ply of ready cash income secured virtually all at one time. Carnivals, fairs, circuses, and tent-shows realize on this fact and plan to go South during the late fall and early winter. One advertises :