292 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



the one room. The big western plantations seldom raised suffi- 

 cient provisions for their own laborers or the feed for the horses 

 and mules, but were almost entirely devoted to cotton. " Large 

 plantations," said Mr. Russell, <l are not suited to the raising 

 of hogs, for it is found to be almost impossible to prevent the 

 negroes stealing and roasting the young pigs. This is one of 

 the disadvantages in raising certain kinds of produce incidental to 

 a system of slavery. The number of cattle which can be raised 

 on the large cotton plantations, do little more than replace the 

 draught oxen that are required. The sheep only supply the wool 

 needed for clothing ; and the mules used for plowing are bred in 

 the Northern states." 



The maximum efficiency of slave labor was said to be secured 

 when not more than fifty negroes were placed under the manage- 

 ment of a single overseer. The difficulty of securing good over- 

 seers and the high salaries which were often paid them, however, 

 frequently led to the placing of more than one hundred slaves 

 under the supervision of one man. Each overseer regulated the 

 hours for work on his own plantation. What these hours were 

 we have already stated. 



The small plantations were for the most part in the old cot- 

 ton states the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee. Their owners, 

 usually of the poor-white class, were either non-slave-holders or 

 owned only a few negroes. The most of the land where the 

 small plantations flourished consisted of pine barrens. The owner 

 was usually his own overseer and sometimes his own slave driver, 

 although those who had any social pride would not do this de- 

 grading work. There was a greater diversity in the crops grown 

 on these small farms in the hill country than on the large plan- 

 tations, clue partly to the fact that the land had been exhausted 

 for cotton, and partly because the planter could not afford to buy 

 his corn and bacon, as did his richer neighbors. More stock was 

 also raised, although it was usually of an inferior breed and was 

 ill kept. As stock was allowed to run at large, some of the states 

 compelled the planters to keep up fences. This was a serious 

 burden to the small farmer, for, owing to his small enclosures, 

 the proportion of land given up to fences was a large one and the 



