8 BULLETIN 659, tT. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 
TRANSPORTATION AND MARKETS. 
There are five steam railroads in Ellis County. (See fig. 1.) 
These lines extend generally north and south through the county; 
one crosses in a northwest-southeasterly direction and one extends 
east from Ennis. An electric interburban line connecting \Vaeo, 
McLennon County, and Dallas, crosses the county in a general north 
and south direction, passing through Redoak, TVaxahachie, Forres- 
ton, Italy, and Milford. This trolley line does little local business 
except the carrying of passengers. 
The county is well covered with " pike " roads which connect 
all the principal towns as well as inland points, thus affording 
easy operation of farm wagons in hauling cotton. Many crossroads 
are not yet graveled, but these are gradually being improved. The 
ungraveled roads are practically impassable during wet seasons, so 
that the " pikes " are a considerable asset to the farmers. These im- 
provements have been brought about by means of the sale of bonds 
issued for the purpose. About 20 per cent of the farm operators 
of the region operate automobiles, which is due quite largely to the 
fact that good roads are available for their use. 
More than half the farms studied in this survey are less than 3J 
miles from a market point where cotton gins are located. Practically 
all the farms of the county are less than 5 miles from a market point. 
Since cotton is a fairly concentrated product and is the chief source 
of income, this distance of farms from market has comparatively 
little influence on the price of farm land. 
Cotton is usually sold to buyers shortly after it is ginned. The 
bales are sampled and prices are then quoted based on the market 
price at Galveston and Xew Orleans. 
The local market for products other than cotton is limited, yet 
other crops show a higher margin of profit between cost and value, 
and this fact is suggestive of possibilities of greater profit under 
other conditions. Cotton cultivation here as in many other regions 
has developed because cotton is a more dependable crop under hard 
conditions and with indifferent cultivation, because it is readily sal- 
able and suffers comparatively little loss by exposure to weather, and 
because its effect upon soil fertility has been little appreciated here- 
tofore. Of course, market facilities and commercial influences re- 
flect this development and at the same time encourage it, so that 
cotton farming has come to be the accepted form of industry. 
LABOR. 
The farm labor of the county is both white and colored. A large 
part of the farm work is done by the operators and their families, 
but the greater part of the cotton picking is done by colored la- 
