Southern lands seemed to beg for cotton. The acidic soils of the South did not welcome wheat or even corn, which grew more abundantly elsewhere, but the South gave cotton all it required: 200 frost-free days annually, a temperature that rose above 77 degrees Fahrenheit for at least ninety days, and abundant rainfall well in excess of the 25 inches that the plant required. Until the advent of large-scale irrigation, no other place in the United States could meet those requirements.
