380 SOUTHERN FIELD CROPS 



made into cloth in the United States supports one of the 

 most important American manufacturing industries, the 

 cotton textile industry. 



Year by year, cotton is coming into wider use. Pro- 

 duction and consumption have both rapidly increased. 

 The following table shows how rapidly the cotton pro- 

 duction of the United States has increased : 



YEAR BALES PRODUCED 



1790 8,889 



1810 269,360 



1830 1,038,847 



1850 . . . 2,454,442 



1870 4,352,317 



1890 8,652,597 



1908 . 13,432,131 



The production of cotton in the United States did not 

 permanently rise above 1,000,000 bales until 1832, nor 

 above 3,000,000 bales until 1851. The crop in round 

 numbers was about 4,000,000 for each of the three years 

 preceding the Civil War. During this war cotton culture 

 was largely discontinued, the production dropping to 

 300,000 bales in 1864. 



Not until 1875 did the annual cotton crop remain per- 

 manently above 4,000,000 bales. 



From the last table, it may be seen that during the 

 greater part of the past century the annual cotton crop of 

 the United States has practically doubled every twenty 

 years. In very recent years the rate of increase has been 

 slower. Neither the world's market for cotton goods 

 nor the productive capacity of the Southern cotton fields 

 has nearly reached its limit. 



