During the period 1960 to 1996, U. S. cotton planted acreage shifted from the East to the West and then shifted back toward the East. Generally cotton production is divided into four regions: Southeast (Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia), Mid South (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee), Southwest (Oklahoma and Texas), and the West (Arizona, California, New Mexico and Nevada). Based on average annual data, Figure 1 shows that in the 1960s, 16.2% of cotton planted acres were in the Southeast with 9.5% in the West. Figure 2 reveals that the 1970s saw 9.4% in the Southeast and 13.3% in the West. In the 1980s, (Figure 3), there was 7.1% in the Southeast and 16.4% in the West. By the 1990s, however, 16.5% of the planted acres were back in the Southeast with 11.3% remaining in the West (Figure 4). During this period (1960-1996), the other two regions remained relatively constant in percentage terms with the Delta ranging from 26.3% in the 1960s to 25.3% in the 1990s. The Southwest ranged from 48% in the 1960s to 46.9% in the 1990s (the Southwest peaked in terms of percent planted acres with 56.4% in the 1980s) (USDA). The cause(s)/effect(s) of this shift are of importance to producers, ginners, policy makers and textile manufacturers as they move through the period of planting flexibility since the inception of the Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform (FAIR) Act of 1996.