22 COTTON 



forest, marsh and barren might be planted to cot- 

 ton without equalling the area which the South an- 

 nually plants to this favorite farm staple. And all 

 this is in the face of the fact that cotton, more 

 largely than any other American crop, is dependent 

 upon hand labor. The increased cost by reason of 

 this fact, however, naturally leads to correspond- 

 ingly greater profits, so that in 1899 24,000,000 

 acres planted to cotton (and at prices very much 

 lower than now obtain) produced $323,000,000 

 in values, while the wheat crop from more than 

 twice this area was worth only $369,000,000, and 

 the value of the corn crop from about four times 

 the cotton acreage was only $828,000,000. 



