272 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



been less than four per cent of the landed area of the ten great 

 cotton states. Nearly all the tillable land in these states was 

 capable of cotton production, and yet the demand for more land 

 for the cultivation of this staple constituted the basis of the 

 Southern clamor for an extension of the federal domain. 



. . . The colonial system was the only system in vogue when 

 the era of cotton culture began, and the cultivation of this plant 

 therefore came under the same unfortunate methods of farming as 

 were pursued in the culture of the other Southern staples. Only 

 in the sea-island-cotton-producing districts was there any notable 

 improvement in agricultural methods due to the introduction and 

 extension of cotton culture. Early experiments in the culture of 

 this variety of cotton showed that its price was greatly height- 

 ened by improvements in its quality, and this fact led the 

 planters of the long-staple cotton to use great care in the selec- 

 tion of the seed and in the subsequent cultivation of the plant. 

 Throughout the great cotton belt, however, where either the 

 upland or New Orleans cotton was cultivated, but little attention 

 was given to methods of agriculture, that method being consid- 

 ered the most profitable which raised the largest crop with the 

 least trouble to the planter. 



The method of clearing cotton lands, while not characteristic 

 of the Southern States alone, and, considering the abundance of 

 timber and the scarcity of labor in the early years, often justifiable, 

 seems to the scientific agriculturist a very wasteful one. Weak 

 handed planters in selecting a site for a plantation in a timbered 

 region first cut through the bark a ring around the larger trees. 

 This caused the trees to die. The smaller trees were at once cut 

 down and burned, and the ground broken up and planted. In a 

 few seasons the wind would blow down the deadened trees, which 

 would then be rolled together in log heaps and also burned. 

 Usually a few crops of Indian corn or wheat would be taken off 

 the land before the fields were ready for cotton. 



The methods of planting and cultivating cotton while slavery 

 continued were very simple, and with few variations were the 

 same throughout the South. After preparing the land for cultiva- 

 tion by breaking down the cotton or corn stalks of the previous 



