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Cotton Fields and the Southeast Drought

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An Upland Cotton bloom (Gossypium hirsutum) grown in my garden in Florida from seeds collected in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.  The plant is native to Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean and Southern Florida but is cultivated primarily in the American Southeast (Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi).
A few weeks after the bloom a seed pod forms and subsequently burst open revealing the cotton fiber which surrounds the seeds in a sharp, hard seed "boll."

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Severe to Extreme Drought has Ravaged Southern Cotton in 2016
Drought and Fire in the Southeast
In many areas the cotton either did not sprout or baked in the soil soon after sprouting.  In other areas the cotton crop is stunted from the drought that has persisted through late Spring to late Fall in the Southeastern USA.  Currently the drought is spreading east and south and if rain doesn't come soon will surely encompass most of the Southeast USA.  In east central Florida it has barely rained since May aside from brief brushes with tropical storms.


Wildfires in the southeastern United States are usually small and do not produce much smoke compared to the big blazes in the western United States, Canada, or Russia. But a cluster of fires in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky in November 2016 defied that trend.

On November 7, 2016, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite observed thick plumes of smoke streaming from forests in the southern Appalachians. Extreme drought fueled the outbreak of fires, and strong winds spread smoke broadly across the Southeast.

The ongoing—and in some areas record-breaking—drought began in May 2016 and intensified throughout the summer. By November, data from the U.S. Drought Monitor showed exceptional drought—the highest level on the scale—across parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. All of the American Southeast, except for coastal areas, faced at least moderate drought.
The map above shows areas that have faced intense evaporative stress between October 6 and November 6, 2016, as represented by the Evaporative Stress Index (ESI). The ESI is not a measure of precipitation; rather, this dataset is based on observations of land surface temperatures (collected by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s geostationary satellites) and on observations of leaf area index from NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites. The combination makes it possible to gauge evapotranspiration—how much water is evaporating from the land surface and from the leaves of plants. Measuring evapotranspiration is useful because unusually low evapotranspiration is an early indicator that plants are facing stress—even if the leaves have not wilted or turned brown yet.
Cotton Fields
by Lead Belly c1940


When I was a little bitty baby

My mama done rock me in the cradle

In them old cotton fields back home

It was back in Louisiana

Just about a mile from Texarkana

In them old cotton fields back home
 Let me tell you now well got me in a fix

I caught a nail in my tire doing lickitey splits

I had to walk a long long way to town

Came upon a nice old man well he had a hat on

Wait a minute mister can you give me some directions

I gonna want to be right off for home
 Don't care if them cotton balls get rotten

When I got you baby, who needs cotton

In them old cotton fields back home

Brother only one thing more that's gonna warm you

A summer's day out in California

It's gonna be those cotton fields back home
 It was back in Louisiana

Just about a mile from Texarkana

Give me them cotton fields

(It was back in Louisiana)

Let me hear it for the cotton fields

(Just about a mile from Texarkana)

You know that there's just no place like home
 Well boy it sure feels good to breathe the air back home

You shoulda seen their faces when they seen how I grown

In them old cotton fields back home
The most famous song about cotton (lyrics above in italics) was written and recorded by Lead Belly in 1940, "Cotton Fields" was introduced into the canon of folk music via its inclusion on the 1954 album release Odetta & Larry which comprised performances by Odetta at the Tin Angel nightclub in San Francisco with instrumental and vocal accompaniment by Lawrence Mohr: this version was entitled "Old Cotton Fields at Home". 
The song's profile was boosted via its recording by Harry Belafonte first on his 1958 album Belafonte Sings the Blues with a live version appearing on the 1959 concert album Belafonte at Carnegie Hall: Belafonte had learned "Cotton Fields" from Odetta and been singing it in concert as early as 1955. A #13 hit in 1961 for The Highwaymen, "Cotton Fields" served as an album track for a number of C&W and folk-rock acts including Ferlin Husky (The Heart and Soul of Ferlin Husky 1963), Buck Owens (On the Bandstand 1963), the New Christy Minstrels (Chim-Chim-Cheree 1965) and the Seekers (Roving With The Seekers1964): Odetta also made a new studio recording of the song for her 1963 album One Grain of Sand.
 The Springfields included "Cotton Fields" on a 1962 EP release: this version is featured on the CD On An Island Of Dreams: The Best Of The Springfields. "Cotton Fields" was also recorded by Unit 4+2 for their Concrete and Clay album (1965). A rendering in French: "L'enfant do," was recorded in 1962 by Hugues Aufray and Petula Clark.
American rock band the Beach Boys recorded "Cotton Fields" on November 18, 1968: the track with Al Jardine on lead vocals debuted on the group's 1969 album 20/20.

Dissatisfied with Brian Wilson's arrangement of the song, Jardine later led the group to record a more country rock style version; this version recorded on August 15, 1969, featured Orville "Red" Rhodes on pedal steel guitar. Entitled "Cottonfields", the track afforded the Beach Boys their most widespread international success while also consolidating the end of the group's hit-making career in the US (although they would enjoy periodic comebacks there). "Cottonfields" would be the final Beach Boys' single released on Capitol Records– the group's label since May 1962 – and their last single released in mono.
While barely making a dent in the U.S. (number 95 Record World, number 103 Billboard) though promoted with an appearance on the network TV pop show Something Else, the song succeeded across the Atlantic, reaching number two in the UK's Melody Maker chart and listed as the tenth-biggest seller of the year by the New Musical Express. Worldwide – outside North America – it nearly replicated the success of the group's "Do It Again" two years before. It was number 1 in Australia, South Africa, Sweden and Norway, number 2 in Denmark, number 3 in Ireland, similarly top 5 in the United Kingdom, Japan, Spain and Rhodesia; number 12 in the Netherlands, number 13 in New Zealand and number 29 in Germany. Because of this popularity, it was placed on the international (ex-US) release of the group's Sunflower album.
The original Lead Belly lyrics state that the fields are "down in Louisiana, just ten miles from Texarkana". Later versions (e.g., Creedence Clearwater Revival's) say the fields are "down in Louisiana, just about a mile from Texarkana". Both are geographically impossible, as Texarkana is about 30 miles north of the Arkansas–Louisiana border. This song line suggests the writer had the widely held but mistaken belief that Texarkana is partially in Louisiana.
The song and its various cover versions became a synonym of bluegrass music, far from actual cotton yielding regions. E.g. the German skiffle band Die Rhöner Säuwäntzt describe their style as Musik von den Baumwollfeldern der Rhön, translating into "music played in the Rhön Mountains (imaginary) cotton fields".

My Cotton Field
My Roots Are in These Fields
100s of years of my ancestors have farmed these Mississippi fields of cotton.  Today, the fields lay fallow, except when I decide to experiment with seeds I've collected in my travels.  These heavily irrigated fields did OK this year but are barely 3' tall.  My Florida-grown cotton from the same seed batches is much healthier-looking with daily irrigation and intense sunshine.
 Below:  The sign says it all.  The sign is in a neighboring field of pecan trees.

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