"Summertime"

What's the origin of the term "high cotton," or "he or she is in 'high cotton?'"

This came from the old US south where cotton was one of the few cash crops when this country was first settled. High cotton is a reference to the tallest healthiest plants, which produced the most cotton. To be "in high cotton" is to have a valuable, bumper crop.

I've heard it this way: "tall cotton."

Lyrics from DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin, "Summertime":

Summertime and the livin' is easy,
Fish are jumpin', and the cotton is high . . .