The history of Arkansas is tied to the history of cotton cultivation. Slaves were brought to Arkansas to raise cotton. After the Civil War, a system of tenant farming and sharecropping emerged and was a central part of the state's economy for decades.
Cotton-related events in Arkansas history include the Lee County cotton-picker strike of 1891, the Elaine Massacre of 1919, and the formation of the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union in 1934 as tension between landowners and their tenants grew. As cotton-producing soils became depleted in states to the east, cotton cultivation moved west.
Cotton production in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas went from 1,576,594 bales in 1860 to 7,283,000 bales in 1920. Cotton still generated a third of Arkansas' agricultural income in the early 1960s. By the 1980s, it was down to 20 percent. In 2015, cotton acreage was the lowest on record in Arkansas, with 205,000 acres planted.
This year, more than 400,000 acres of cotton were planted, ranking Arkansas among the top five states in cotton production.
For those driving through the Arkansas Delta, abandoned cotton gins are a common sight. Soybeans are now king, with more than 3 million acres planted this year. About 1.25 million acres were planted in rice.
"Cotton had been the state's bellwether crop, but by the end of World War II, rice and soybeans appeared and quickly won a loyal following," the late historian C. Fred Williams wrote in a history of Arkansas agriculture. "After a few years, most farmers were convinced that the relative ease of producing soybeans made it the crop for the future. Rice, too, because of its greater economic return, found increasing favor in the Delta. Farmers were willing to make long-term commitments to these crops even though it meant acquiring new equipment."
New cotton gins are rare. Last year, Billy Wayne Tripp went against the grain by building one.
Looking to diversify, Tripp began growing cotton in 2018 on his family's farm near Griffithville in White County. He planted 800 acres of cotton that year.
"I thought there would be more money in cotton," Tripp says. "Also, it takes less water, and that's important around here. I tried growing peanuts, but our soil isn't quite sandy enough for a good peanut crop. The only downside for cotton was that we had to make a 104-mile trip to Black Oak in northeast Arkansas to have the cotton ginned."
Cotton had been largely absent from the crop mix in White County for 60 years before Tripp made his decision.
"I knew if it went well and cotton acreage expanded, we would need a gin to reduce the distance we had to take our crop to be ginned," he says.
Another farmer decided to grow cotton in White County in 2018, and almost 3,500 acres were planted. Yields were outstanding despite a wet fall. Acreage in White and surrounding counties went up in 2019. By 2020, there were 12,500 acres of cotton planted in a five-county area.
Tripp finally pulled the trigger and built a gin. Farmers are always reluctant to talk about costs, but it's safe to say this state-of-the-art facility cost millions of dollars.
In her office at Searcy Farm Supply, which the Tripp family also owns, Billy Wayne's wife Kim can watch a monitor and tell how much cotton is ginned.
"The first bale was ginned on Halloween last year," she says. "We had put so much time and effort into this project that it was like waiting for a baby to be born. We ran the gin through Jan. 12 and wound up ginning 14,279 bales. This year, we started ginning Oct. 7. Yields have been good. We expect to gin more than 20,000 bales."
Kim says her mother picked cotton by hand as a child. Billy Wayne's father, Billy Ray Tripp, did the same. He has vivid memories of picking cotton on the same land near Griffithville where his son now farms.
"There were seven kids in the family, and we all helped out," Billy Ray says. "My mom and the kids would try to do a bale and a half."
Billy Wayne has made another multimillion-dollar investment in four mechanical cotton pickers to do custom picking for customers in nearby counties.
I make the drive from Searcy Farm Supply to Tripp Gin Co. on a gray, chilly November day. I notice cotton on both sides of the road after passing through Higginson, proof that the gin has encouraged others to give the crop a try.
Custom trucks that haul cotton have the Tripp Gin Co. logo on their doors. Modern Lummus machinery at the gin hums. The gin is so clean that it resembles a research lab. Even the bagging machine cost $300,000.
Ginned cotton is trucked to warehouses in Memphis. It's shipped down the Mississippi River from there and later travels out of New Orleans to destinations around the world.
"I have customers this year from places like Hazen and Newport who hadn't grown cotton before," Billy Wayne says. "There will be even more next year. We're only at half capacity now. We hope to get up to 75 percent next year."
During ginning season, Billy Wayne leaves home before daylight and doesn't return until after dark.
"In the 1950s, cotton was all that was around here," he says. "It's kind of nice to see it back. We'll be running five pickers by next year. The way cotton is harvested now, you can leave it on the side of a field for five or six months and it's still good to gin."
He has eight employees at the gin who work from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. seven days a week.
"Some of them won't come back," Billy Wayne says. "The hardest thing is getting a new crew trained each year."
Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.