Cotton Time

It's cotton time around here again. Most of the fields have been harvested and the cotton taken up to the gin to be processed and baled. I think the big stacks of cotton are pretty.

According to one of the old locals, cotton production has dropped drastically from 40,000 bales back in the 50's to 4,000 bales today. That's a 90% drop in local production of cotton. I'm guessing the drop in production was a result of a general drop in cotton prices due to the introduction of polyester and nylon in the manufacturing of clothing. 

This helps you to appreciate why so many of the local communities are not as prosperous as they were in the past decades. It's hard for me to imagine how much activity there must have been in the fields and how crowded and busy the gins would have been.