EVOLUTION OF THE COTTON SYSTEM 



59 



"The usual quantity of land planted is between twenty-five 

 and thirty acres, about half of which is in cotton and the 

 rest in corn and patches. An industrious man will raise three 

 times the amount of his rent cotton, besides making a full 

 supply of corn, sirup, and other provisions." The poorer 

 farmers work "sufficiently well to pay their rent, buy their 

 clothes, spend at Christmas, and let the rainy days of the 

 future take care of themselves." 



The following is the yearly budget of one Ben Thomas, 

 his wife, a son and a daughter, one of the best farmers on 

 the Barrow place. He made: 



5 Bales of Cotton 2,500 pounds @ .11 $275.00 



Corn 160 bushels @ .75 per bushel 120.00 



Fodder 3,000 pounds @ 1.00 per hun. 30.00 



Wheat 30 bushels @ 1.00 30.00 



His renting contract included the following: 



Cotton 500 pounds @ $0.11 



Corn 25 bushels @ 1.00 



Fodder 500 pounds @ 1.00 per hun. 



Cotton seeds 40 bushels @ .50 



$455.00 



$ 55.00 



25.00 



5.00 



20.00 



$105.00 



Valuing cotton seed at 50 cents a bushel it will be seen 

 that the tenant paid less than one-fourth of his crop as rent. 

 Other tenants not so industrious paid a larger proportion. 40 



The plantation was not undergoing internal change in 

 the midst of a static society. The plantation was re- 

 organizing but it was also breaking up. The neglected 

 and overlooked small farmers of the South were entering 



40 D. C. Barrow, "A Georgia Plantation," Scribner's Monthly 

 (April, 1881), pp. 830-36. 



