REGIONS AND HUMAN ECOLOGY 25 



grown in the South is responsible for the fact which 

 W. E. Dodd notes when he says that "the problem of 

 subsistence during the Civil War was much simpler than 

 in any of the European countries fighting in the Great 

 War." 44 



Rainfall, however, limits southern agriculture in the 

 production of hay. The higher rainfall for all except the 

 Western area of the Cotton Belt results in autumn show- 

 ers that make the growing of hay extremely hazardous. 

 "In all the states from North Carolina to Louisiana many 

 farmers attempt to produce hay," but a large part of 

 the crop is lost each year in the curing and much of the 

 rest is damaged by untimely rains. More dependable 

 autumn weather is found in states further from the At- 

 lantic and the Gulf, particularly Arkansas, Oklahoma, 

 and parts of Texas, all of which have larger acreages of 

 hay. As a result, the relative proportion of crop land 

 devoted to hay in the cotton states is the smallest in the 

 United States. Not enough hay is produced for home use, 

 and much has to be imported from the Middle West. 

 Since the freight charges often equal the original cost, 

 southern planters pay a high price for their hay. If 

 methods of curing suitable to the climate were worked 

 out, hay would be more generally grown. It would, how- 

 ever, be valuable as a cash crop if only a few farmers in 

 each community grew it for market. 45 



Excessive rainfall is the main regional factor re- 

 sponsible for ruining a great deal of southern farm land. 

 It is estimated that in the Cotton Belt in the decades 

 since 1860 "erosion has destroyed an area equal to that 



44 The Cotton Kingdom, p. 63. 



48 W. J. Spillman, Distribution of Types of Farming in the United 

 States, Farmers' Bulletin 1289, p. 12. 



