But
here, again, monopoly, now a monopoly of natural opportunity, is a
factor in creating prices; on this, however, the vast irrigation
projects of the government, bringing into use larger and larger
areas of these favored lands, were expected to exercise a check. Up
to 1918 little has been sold. Their reclamation cost too much.
The willingness of the Southern planters to sell their lands, and so
to release them for intensive cultivation, has partly turned the
tide of immigration from the Eastern ports to the South, and the
market garden system is reaching increasing areas. The development
of factories to make cotton fabrics and to utilize the formerly
wasted cotton seed by turning it into meal for cattle and other
animals, as well as into the various food products, such as
cotton-seed oil, cottolene, etc., has stimulated the use of the
waste land around these budding factory centers, thus tending to
encourage intensive use of small, well-located tracts.
With a climate much milder and more equable than that of the
Northern states, with a potential fertility of soil, equally great
under proper management, the South is making greater strides than
any other part of the country.
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