FIBER PLANTS 173 



appreciated, and the next few decades will doubtless 

 witness a complete revolution in the farming methods 

 of the South. This does not mean that cotton will 

 not continue to be the chief export money crop, or 

 that the Southern states will lose their proud position 

 as the foremost cotton-producing region of the world. 

 When each Southern farm shall be so managed that 

 all the grain, pork, fruits, and vegetables consumed 

 on the place are grown at home, and when enough 

 cattle and hogs are bred to consume all the forage 

 that it is possible to produce in a properly planned 

 rotation, only about a third of the area will be 

 planted each year in cotton. The resulting reduction 

 in acreage will be more than compensated for by the 

 much greater fertility of the soil, and the total yield 

 will be greater, not less, than it is at present. That 

 this is no idle theory has been proved many times 

 over by the experience in recent years of those pro- 

 gressive planters who have been the first to adopt 

 the teachings of modern agriculture. 



Ever since the days of the Civil War, when the 

 price of cotton was so abnormally high, persistent 

 efforts have been made by England and other Euro- 

 pean manufacturing countries to encourage the plant- 

 ing of cotton in other countries. So far, however, no 

 other region has been found which can really compete 

 with the southern part of the United States. Con- 

 siderable quantities of cotton are grown in Egypt and 

 India, and a very small quantity is now being pro- 

 duced in the British West Indies. Attempts are also 

 being made in various parts of Africa. At the time 

 of the Civil War and again in recent years plantings 



