8 BULLETIF 414, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGKICULTUEE. 



South. In the North the severity of the winter chmate rendered 

 much outdoor work during that season impracticable. If the con- 

 victs were to be employed the year round — and it was recognized 

 that they should be — it was necessary to provide the means of such 

 employment indoors during the winter season; and the institution 

 once estabhshed with provision for indoor work, the easy and obvi- 

 ous thing to do was to make use of it winter and summer. In the 

 South, on the other hand, it was thought by many persons that the 

 hot, summer climate would be unfavorable to the employment of 

 prisoners indoors during that season, while the mild climate per- 

 mitted outdoor work at all seasons. Conditions were the reverse of 

 those existing in the North and the pursuit of the same logic in the 

 two sections resulted in the two opposing methods. 



In addition to the effect of the difference in climate upon the 

 employment of convicts in the North and South, respectively, indus- 

 trial conditions caused by the development of large ports and manu- 

 facturing centers in the North, as contrasted with the extension of 

 the plantation system of agriculture in the South, further accentuated 

 the tendency to indoor employment in the North and outdoor in the 

 South. In the North it followed logically that the convicts should be 

 employed in manufacturing, which was the prevaihng occupation of 

 the community. The industries were the manufacture of boots and 

 shoes, hollow ware, cooperage, harness, shirts, overalls, and other arti- 

 cles of trade. The same logic of conditions caused the working of the 

 convicts in the South at outdoor tasks, such as in the mines, in the liun- 

 ber and turpentine industries, in the construction of railroads, and, to 

 some extent, in farming. As has been shown from the early experi- 

 ence of Pennsylvania, the attempt to employ convicts outdoors in 

 the midst of a comparatively dense population brought about such 

 intimate contact of convicts and pubhc as to degrade the former and 

 seriously to affect the order and well-being of the latter. This objec- 

 tion could not be raised in the South, where the population was com- 

 paratively sparse and widely distributed on plantations and manors, 

 and where the convict, working out of doors, would fall under the 

 observation of only occasional travelers on the hghtly traveled 

 highways. 



After the failure in Pennsylvania, convicts had been rarely used 

 in the United States on pubhc works until nearly 1880. In England, 

 the various attempts to abohsh the system of convict transportation 

 led somewhat earUer to the extensive and profitable use of convicts 

 in this way, notably in the construction of the Portland breakwater, 

 which was begun in 1848, and upon which an average of 1,000 con- 

 victs were employed for almost 25 years. In the United States 

 the first of the modern laws permitting the regular employment of 



