SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 1790-1860 293 



cost of construction and maintenance of these fences was consid- 

 erable. In South Carolina, the state geologist estimated in 1858 

 that the cost of fences every ten years equalled the annual value 

 of all the stock (cattle, sheep and hogs) which these fences were 

 intended to prevent from becoming injurious to other property. 



Methods of cultivation on these small plantations were, owing 

 to the ignorance of the people, but little better than those on 

 the large plantations. In some portions of the South, however, 

 where the people were of a more intelligent character, the houses 

 and farm improvements were good, and the people lived in more 

 comfort than even those living on the large plantations. Domes- 

 tic manufactures flourished in these neighborhoods. Each fam- 

 ily spun and wove from wool or cotton the garments required 

 for the use of its own members, while the neighborhood shoe- 

 maker and blacksmith supplied the shoes and farming implements 

 required by the community. 



The almost universal form of land tenure throughout the cot- 

 ton belt was individual ownership, whether of large or small 

 'tracts of land. In the hill country, as we have already observed, 

 the small farms predominated ; elsewhere latifundia were the 

 rule. The renting of land for agricultural purposes must have 

 been extremely rare, for census and agricultural reports and 

 travellers' accounts are alike silent in regard thereto. Where 

 the average price of occupied land was only $5 or 36 per acre 

 and new lands could be secured for from 50 cents to 33 per 

 acre, there would be small reason for any one renting land. It 

 was not until the break-up of the agricultural system of the South 

 by the Civil War that land in the planting states came to have a 

 rental value. 



Although nearly every writer who has attempted to describe 

 Southern agricultural conditions has had something to say about 

 the credit system with which Southern agriculture was involved, 

 definite information concerning this interesting phase of rural 

 economy previous to the war is difficult to obtain. Pre-bellum 

 writers have usually contented themselves with deprecating the 

 practice of the Southern farmer by which he rendered himself 

 dependent upon factors or merchants by pledging his crops 



