A further reason for not encouraging the production of corn and wheat is the profit the merchant makes by the sale of imported flour, meal, and bacon.

Cotton is therefore almost the only product of sections admirably suited to the growing of corn or to the raising of hogs.

The country merchant has helped to keep the South poor.
Yet in spite of the apparently exorbitant percentage of profit, few country merchants become rich.

In a year of drouth, or of flood, many of their debtors may not be able to pay their accounts, even though their intentions are of the best.

Others may prove shiftless and neglect their fields.