PRODUCTION OF COTTON 



443 



607. Production in the United States. The mciease m 

 the production of cotton in the United States since the be- 

 ginning of the nineteenth century is one of our most re- 

 markable records of progress. There has been a continual 

 increase in the production of cotton since 1800, except in 

 the decade from 1861 to 1870, when the war between the 

 states practically demoralized the cotton industiy of the 

 South. The crop of 1864 was less than 300,000 bales, though 

 five years previous the production reached 4,500,000 bales. 

 In the decade from 1870 to 1880 there was a gradual recovery- 

 in the industry, the average production being more than 

 4,000,000 bales. Since then, the increase has been about 

 2,500,000 bales annually for each decade. 



Figure 146 shows that the production of cotton is con- 

 fined almost entirely to the Southeastern states. The aver- 

 age area in cotton from 1908 to 1917 was 34,006,000 acres. 

 The annual production of the United States was 12,813,000 

 bales, and the average annual value of the crop about $828,- 

 118,000. More than three tenths of the cotton acreage of 

 the United States is in Texas. This state produced more 

 than one fourth of the cotton crop of the country and more 



Table XX. Average acreage, yield per acre, and total productio7i 

 in hales of cotton in the ten lead hi g states during (he ten years from 

 1908 to 1917, inclusive. 



