300 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



1834 and i860, progress in this direction was less rapid than in 

 the North. In 1850 the Southern States, including Virginia and 

 Kentucky, had less miles of railway than were possessed by the 

 New England States, and in i860, there were but 9517 miles of 

 railway in the Southern States, as compared with 11,114 miles 

 in the North Central States. 



The railroads exercised an important influence on cotton grow- 

 ing, not only in the fact that they furnished cheaper and more 

 rapid transportation for cotton, but that they created local markets, 

 stimulated interior buying and facilitated the deportation of ne- 

 groes from the coast to the interior. <( The railroads stimulated 

 the extension of cotton culture and made Western provisions so 

 cheap that the farmers neglected the production of food at home. 

 By cheapening the transportation of corn and bacon to the cotton 

 lands, and cheapening the carriage of cotton to the seaboard, an 

 unaccustomed adjustment of prices came about, which led the 

 farmers into that vicious semblance of economy of which the evil 

 effects are still seen and felt throughout the states, whereby the 

 independence and the substantial comforts of farm life are sacri- 

 ficed to the pursuit of money returns from a large cotton crop. 



Although there were many attempts made by Southern agri- 

 culturists and statisticians to determine what were the costs and 

 profits of cotton raising, the results secured are not very satisfac- 

 tory from a statistical point of view. Conditions of production 

 varied not only according to the difference in locality, but within 

 a single community they varied according to the size and manage- 

 ment of the plantation. The large plantation with a superior or- 

 ganization of slave labor, produced at a less expense than did the 

 small plantation adjoining. Difference in the fertility of the soil, 

 in character of the seasons, in facilities for marketing will occur 

 to any one at first thought. Even on a single plantation it was 

 difficult to estimate the average cost of raising cotton, if any other 

 crops were cultivated, or to say what proportion of the expense 

 was to be legitimately reckoned as costs of cotton raising. About 

 1840, when planters were becoming alarmed lest India should 

 become a successful rival of the Southern States as a cotton- 

 producing country, there was a meeting of the " most distinguished 



