IN THE SOUTH 29 



sively. The principal crop of many regions of the South 

 has been cotton, which has in some places been grown suc- 

 cessively on the same soil for twenty-five or fifty years. 



Several causes have led to a one-crop system of agri- 

 culture. In certain cases the soil is better adapted to some 

 one crop than to others and will therefore yield a larger 

 profit to the farmer. The natural tendency therefore is 

 to plant chiefly the crop that will bring the largest imme- 

 diate returns. Again, where but one crop is raised a smaller 

 assortment of tools and implements is required, hence 

 less expense needed for equipment. It is also easier to 

 learn the art of farming where but one crop is used than 

 where a number are grown, each requiring a different sys- 

 tem of planting, cultivating and harvesting. Certain crops 

 may also find a more ready and constant market than 

 others, thus encouraging farmers to grow the product that 

 can be most easily turned into cash. 



Disadvantages of the one-crop system. There are 

 great disadvantages, however, connected with the one-crop 

 system. These disadvantages are felt more in the South 

 than in any other region of the United States, largely be- 

 cause cotton was practically the only crop raised. 



First, any one-crop system is sure to wear out the soil. 

 This is easily seen from the fact that the crop must re- 

 move the same elements from the soil year after year. And, 

 without the return of sufficient fertilizer to make up this 

 loss, the soil is depleted until only a fraction of its orig- 

 inal fertility remains. Northern and western regions where 

 upon virgin prairie soil they easily produced 40 to 50 bushels 

 of wheat to the acre found that after some years of wheat 

 growing without any rotation of crops the yield had been 

 reduced to a half or a quarter of what it was upon the new 

 soil. In a similar way, thousands of acres of southern 

 land that originally produced large crops of cotton have 



