40 THE COAST REGION. 



iiunibcr of years, it is not improbable tliat tlic culture of this high-priced 

 cotton might Ijc much extended. 



It is difficult to find a satisfactory answer to the question why is long 

 staple cotton planted exclusively on the coast. Uplands have been tried 

 there, and it has been found that they yield no more than long staple, 

 which of course caused their abandonment as less profitable. The only 

 explanation offered is to refer this case to that general law of cultivated 

 plants, that their culture is most profitable at the northern limit at which 

 they can be grown, inasmuch as their yield at that point is greater, their 

 cultivation cheaper, the period of growth being shorter, and their product 

 of better quality. This certainly is true to a large extent of cotton. 

 Latitude is the only reason that can»be given why the Carolina long sta- 

 ples are superior to those of Florida and Georgia. Cotton samplers say 

 that the same is true of uplands, and the staple grown near the moun- 

 tains are finer, stronger, and more even than the crops raised south of 

 them. The rapid advance that cotton culture is making in the Piedmont 

 country would seem to show that its culture there was being found more 



profitable than further south. 



* 



THE COST OF COTTON PRODUCTION. 



Th<3 eost of production may be considered from two points of view. 

 First, the actual cost to certain producers, of whom inquiry has been 

 made. Second, what may be termed the rational cost, that is, the labor, 

 material and capital necessarily expended in production, directly or 

 indirectly, by the producer himself, or by some one else. The first is 

 real, but by no means expresses everything involved. For instance, on 

 unsaleable land, a landholder, with little or no expenditure of caj)ital, 

 may produce a certain amount of cotton with labor given in return for debts' 

 that could not be otherwise collected. Such cotton would cost almost 

 nothing to the producer. Between this and the opposite extreme, where 

 the land had been bought above its real value, and a large expenditure 

 made in the culture, theje is every variation of individual experience — 

 from one of immense profits, to one ending directly in bankruptcy. The 

 rational cost, on the other hand, is purely theoretical ; in estimating the 

 cost of each item of expenditure, it must be generalized and reduced to an 

 average that does not, perhaps, conform exactly to the experience of any 

 individual. It summarizes these items, and leaves them recorded for 

 consideration. Both methods are given. Messrs. Hinson & Rivers, on 

 James' island, say $80 a bale of 400 pounds, or 20 cents per pound. Dr. 

 A. B. Ro.se, of Charleston, puts the cost at $70 per acre, which should yield a 

 bale of 350 pounds, which gives, likewise, 20 cents per pound. One of 



