Growing Cotton

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The agricultural industry has been a mainstay of United States

development and progress since the earliest days of the republic.

Particularly important, especially in the south, has been the cotton

industry. The cotton industry boomed for two centuries, but a

constant problem and threat to the profitability of cotton, in fact,

its very existence has been the notorious boll weevil. The boll

weevil has destroyed crops and sent many farming families into

bankruptcy.

As technology advanced, most families were able to stave off the

terrible effects of this terrible pest, but one family was not so

lucky. With the advent of polyester and the threat of the boll

weevil, profit margins were slim indeed. During one especially poor

run of luck, the boll weevil attacked one family's cotton crop three

years in a row, effectively devastating the crop and sending the

family into ruin. Since the early part of the eighteenth century,

this family had grown cotton in a particularly pleasant and lush

valley. The valley was now ruined. The banks insisted the family

sell; they owed much more than they could possibly ever repay.

Yet the head of the family was adamant about his insistence on

staying. He said, "Though I live in the valley of the shadow of debt,

I shall fear no weevil."