SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 1790-1860 285 



there were no climatic disadvantages for whites throughout the 

 greater part of the cotton belt, where the use of slave labor was 

 directly responsible for the perpetuation of the " one-field " system 

 of agriculture long after that method of tillage had survived its 

 period of usefulness and had succeeded in completely exhausting 

 the fertility of the once productive soils. 



Slave labor probably cost absolutely, though not relatively, less 

 than free labor, and the owner had the advantage of absolute 

 control over the laborer's services. But this was more than offset 

 by the lack of interest which the slave took in his work. His low 

 cost of maintenance did not make up for his waste of his master's 

 property. The slave learned methods of agriculture slowly, and he 

 therefore worked best when employed in cultivating only one crop. 

 And as to allow him to remain idle was to lose for the time being 

 the use of almost the entire capital of the planter, it became 

 necessary to furnish employment which should last throughout 

 the year. The cultivation of cotton spread over three-fourths of 

 the year, and, together with the clearing of new lands, furnished 

 continuous employment to slave labor, which the cultivation of 

 the cereals, the raising of grasses, vegetables, fruits, etc., would 

 not have done. The slave, therefore, stood in the way of the 

 adoption of a rotative system of agriculture. While cotton raising 

 by means of slave labor was an industry of increasing or even 

 constant returns, the profits of the planter were invested in new 

 lands and more slaves. When the industry reached that point in 

 diminishing returns where the profits disappeared, the planter, 

 instead of reducing his labor force and landed property for the 

 purpose of adopting an intensive system of farming, found greater 

 profit in breeding slaves for the planters on the still unexhausted 

 western lands. 



The one great advantage which Mr. Russell, who seems to have 

 been favorably impressed with the slave system, found in the culti- 

 vation of cotton by means of slave labor, was the "' organization 

 and division of labor," of which their numbers permitted on the 

 large plantations. This seems to have been a conclusion derived 

 from a priori reasoning, rather than from observation, for there 

 were no large plantations worked by free labor previous to the 



