Figure 10. — Cotton, a crop with an uncertain future, still furnishes about two-fifths of the cash income to that half of the population of South 



Carolina which lives on farms. 



Figure 11. — Percent of land area producing ag- 

 ricultural crops in 1939. 



on only about 3 percent of the total cropland har- 

 vested in 1939. 



The average cotton acreage per farm has steadily 

 decreased. It was 14.5 acres in 1909, 13.7 in 1919, 

 12.5 in 1929, and 8.6 in 1939. For the same years 

 the average acreage in corn was 8.9, 9.1, 8.8, and 

 12.8. While these figures indicate a trend toward 

 greater crop diversification, cotton still retains a 



dominant position in South Carolina's agriculture. 

 This is as it should be, in view of the importance of 

 cotton raising to the textile industry. Though 

 greater diversification is desirable, it should be 

 sought not at the expense of cotton, but rather 

 through the expansion of other crops and land uses. 

 In some places, the expansion of the livestock in- 

 dustry seems to offer the best opportunities. But 



