50 American Economic Association [848 



INDEX NUMBERS REPRESENTING THE AVERAGE NUM- 

 BER OF ACRES IN ALL FARM CROPS, PER FARM OF 

 TEN ACRES AND OVER IN 1880, 1890, AND 1900 



Base 1880 1890 igoo 



United States 42.6 = 100 .... 114.1 .... 116.9 



North Atlantic div. . . . 33.7 = 100 .... 105.9 .... 104.2 

 South Atlantic div. . . . 36.2 = 100 .... 92.3 .... 80.9 

 North Central div. . . . 51.5 = 100 . . . 126.4 .... 141.8 



South Central div 34.6 = 100 .... 99.1 .... 97.1 



Western div 64.5 = 100 .... 106.0 .... 106.2 



There are three principal causes which have oper- 

 ated to produce the different conditions disclosed by 

 this last table. 



First : As between the North and South, there is a 

 difference in the character of the workers. The negro 

 workmen, as compared with the white workmen in the 

 North and West, are lacking in the intelligence requi- 

 site for conducting extensive farming operations, as 

 also for the using of machine power advantageously. 

 This, coupled with the breaking up of the old planta- 

 tion system, has tended to give smaller farms in the 

 South Atlantic and South Central divisions. 1 



Second : The character of the principal crops culti- 

 vated in the Southern states are those in the cultiva- 

 tion of which, as compared with the crops raised in the 

 Northern states, machine power is but little used. 

 The only machine which plays any considerable part 

 in the production of the distinctively Southern crops, 

 is the cotton gin and the influence of this machine was 

 in full operation long before the year 1880; whereas 

 the influence of the machines used in the production of 

 the distinctively Northern crops was, at that time, only 

 fairly well under way. 



Third : As between the North Atlantic, North Cen- 



1 Hammond : Cotton Industry, pp. 123-129. 



