8 BULLETIN 414, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
South. In the North the severity of the winter climate 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 established 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 prevailing 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 lum- 
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 public 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 lightly traveled 
highways. 
After the failure in Pennsylvania, convicts had been rarely used 
in the United States on public works until nearly 1880. In England, 
the various attempts to abolish the system of convict transportation 
led somewhat earlier 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 
