The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1938-08-13
NEC'S SURVEY SHOWS
SOUTH IMPOVERISHED
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cotton and tobacco for two-thirds
of it's cash income" the report
stated. More than half of its
farmers depend on cotton alone.
They are one-crop farmers, sub
jected year after year to risks
which would appal. the average
businessman. All their eggs are
in one basket--a basket which can
be upset, and often is, by the
weather, the boil weevil or the
cotton market. ''@
1.-The boil weevil can be con-
oered, and weather hazards tend
to cancel themselves out as good
seasons follow bad; but the cotton
market is sheer gamble. On
this gamble, nearly 100000
southern families stake their
years work and everything they
own
"No other similar area in the
world CANDLES its welfare and
the destines of so many people on
a single crop market year after
year.
"Thc gamble is not a good one.
Few other crops are subject to
such violent and mpredictable
price variations as cotton. In 1927
cotton farmers got 20 cents a
pound for their crop; in 1929
they got l6 cents; in 1881, they
got 6 cents; in 1888 they got 10
cents. Only once during the last
decade did the price change less
than 10 percent between pick
ings. Three times in five years 1T
jumped more than 40 percent
once up and twice down."
Because cotton is the corner
stone Of southern economy, mer-
chants, bankers and manufactur-
ers there share the hazards of the
cotton farmer, the report continu-
ed. Bankers charge high interest
rates because their money is sub
ject to more risk. Because OF this,
the southern mortgage debt has
risen steadily for 20 years and
one-tenth of cotton lands have
fallen into the hands of corpora
tons. Additionally, more than
half of the SOuth'S farmers have
been forced into tenantry.
Tenant families form the most
unstable part of our population
the report said. "More than a
third Of them move every year,
and only a small percentage stay
in the same place long enough to
carry out a 5-year crop rotation
Under these circumstances
the tenant has no incentive to
protect the, soil, plant cover crops.
or keep buildings in repair. On
the contrary, he has every reason
to mine the soil for every posi-
bic penny of immediate cash re-
turn"
While it grows more cotton and
tobacco than it can grow profit
ably, the south fails to raise the
things it needs, the report stated.
Southern farmers grow at home
less than one-fifth of the things
they use; .four-fifths of all they
eat and wear is purchased. This
was considered economic waste
because the region has more than
half of the nations farm popula-
ton, although it raises less than
one-tenth of the nations pigs and
cattle. Though it has more than
fourth of Americas population,
it produces only one-fifth Of the
cOuntry'S eggs, milk and butter,
one-Seventh of the hay, one
Fights of the potatoes and one
twelfth of the oats.
because they have concentrate
ed on cash crops, southern famil-
les have planted relatively little
of their land in alfalfa, clover,
field peas and soybeans," the
survey said. "These and similar
legumes add fertility to the soil
and at the same time protect
fields against washing and gully
ing. If widely used, they would
help the farmer to protect his in
vestment and take a little of the
gamble out of his business"
On the asset side, the report
found that the birth rate in the
south is higher than that of any
other region, that an excess of III