Every 1 percent increase in the cotton share was accompanied by a 1 percent increase in the output per worker. When output is valued at market prices, cotton comprised about one quarter of the output of typical sleeveless farms, but three-fifths or more for the largest slaveholding cotton plantations. Cotton amounted in 1850 to only one-quarter of total Southern agricultural output, and tobacco, sugar, and rice together to less than another 10 percent. The largest Southern crop was not in fact cotton but corn, which was cheap to grow, and, very conveniently, could be both planted and harvested at times different from cotton. Among other things, Provided food for livestock, notably Hogs and the South had 2/3 of the hugs in the United States in 1860 the consequence of the compatibility of cotton and corn production was to make the South virtually self-sufficient as far as food was concerned (although there where local imbalances).
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