In this AP report, subsidies prop up cotton farmers during our current downturn. But USDA programs are widely known for paying farmers not to farm. Actually the payments go to people who own land that was once farmed. This is like the old New Yorker cartoon that showed an accordion player with a sign that read, "Will not play Lady of Spain, 25 cents."

After more than a century, according to the ADG, Arkansas cotton fields are at last free of boll weevils. In 1906 the boll weevil arrived from Mexico and farmers fought against and suffered from this incidious insect year after year. Nothing was a bigger threat. But none have appeard in the fields this season.

I doubt that today the average person even knows what a boll weevil is. Well, that's progress. For information see here.