rench spinners, solicitous for their supply of material,
attempted at various times and places during the ante-bellum period to
enlarge the production of cotton where it was already established and to
introduce it into new regions. The result was a complete failure to lessen
the predominance of the United States as a source. India, Egypt and Brazil
might enlarge their outputs considerably if the rates in the market were
raised to twice or thrice their wonted levels; but so long as the price
held a moderate range the leadership of the American cotton belt could not
be impaired, for its facilities were unequaled. Its long growing season,
hot in summer by day and night, was perfectly congenial to the plant, its
dry autumns permitted the reaping of full harvests, and its frosty winters
decimated the insect pests. Its soil was abundant, its skilled managers
were in full supply, its culture was well systematized, and its labor
adequate for the demand. To these facilities there was added in the
Southern thought of the time, as no less essential for the permanence of
the cotton belt's primacy, the plantation system and the institution of
slavery.

CHAPTER XIII

TYPES OF LARGE PLANTATIONS

The tone and method of a plantation were determined partly by the crop and
the lie of the land, partly by the characters of the master and his men,
partly by the local tradition. Some communities operated on the basis of
time-work, or the gang system; others on piece-work or the task system. The
former was earlier begun and far more widely spread, for Sir Thomas Dale
used it in drilling the Jamestown settlers at their work, it was adopted
in turn on the "particular" and private plantations thereabout, and it was
spread by the migration of the sons and grandsons of Virginia throughout
the middle and western South as far as Missouri and Texas. The task system,
on the other hand, was almost wholly confined to the rice coast. The gang
method was adaptable to operations on any scale. If a proprietor were of
the great majority who had but one or two families of slaves, he and his
sons commonly labored alongside the blacks, giving not less than step for
step at the plow and stroke for stroke with the hoe. If there were a dozen
or two working hands, the master, and perhaps the son, instead of laboring
manually would superintend the work of the plow and hoe gangs. If the
slaves numbered several score the master and his family might live in
le