m of farming hazardous. The cattle
tick is being conquered, and more beef is being produced. Thoroughbred
hogs and poultry are common.

With the great rise in the price of the farmer's products since 1910,
the man who farms with knowledge and method is growing prosperous.
Farmers are taking advantage of the Federal Farm Loan Act and are paying
off many mortgages. The necessity of asking for credit is diminishing,
and men have contracted to buy land and have paid for it from the first
crop. While the things the farmer must buy have risen in price, his
products have risen even higher in value; and in those sections of the
South suited to mixed farming there need be comparatively little outgo.

One is tempted to hope that the lane has turned for the Southern farmer.
Partly owing to his ignorance and inertia, partly to circumstances
difficult to overcome, his lot after 1870 was not easy, and from 1870 to
1910 is a full generation. An individual who grew to manhood on a
Southern farm during that period may be excused for a gloomy outlook
upon the world. He finds it difficult to believe that prosperity has
arrived, or that it will last. The number who have been convinced of the
brighter outlook, however, is increasing.

CHAPTER V

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT

Though the Old South was in the main agricultural, it was not entirely
destitute of industrial skill. The recent industrial development is
really a revival, not a revolution, in some parts of the South. In 1810,
according to Tench Coxe's semi-official _Statement of Arts and
Manufactures_, the value of the textile products of North Carolina was
greater than that of Massachusetts. Every farmhouse had spinning-wheels
and one loom or several on which the women of the family spun yarn and
wove cloth for the family wardrobe. On the large plantations negro women
produced much of the cloth for both slaves and family. Except on special
occasions, a very large proportion of the clothing worn by the average
Southern community was of household or local manufacture. Hats were made
of fur, wool, or plaited straw. Hides were tanned on the plantations or
more commonly at a local tannery and were made into shoes by local
cobblers, white or black.

Local cabinet-makers made furniture, all of it strong, and some of it
good in line and finish. Many of the pieces sold by dealers in antiques
in the great cities as coming from Europe by way of the South were made
by cabinet-makers in