ABSTRACT
Agriculture, which has played a major role in South Carolina’s economy since the beginning of English settlement more than three centuries ago, lost its long-held position of leadership to industry as early as 1923. Both agriculture and fishing remain important forces that shape the state’s present-day landscape. The character of farm operations in South Carolina has changed dramatically as agriculture has adjusted to present-day conditions. A new phenomenon during the 1950s that has had a marked impact on South Carolina agriculture is that of the part-owner. Clemson University’s 1982 survey of small farmers in South Carolina revealed that a majority of them earned income primarily from livestock. Like rice planters who lost control of their market to Louisiana and Texas during the last decades of the nineteenth century, South Carolina cotton farmers competed with new growers in Texas, Arizona, and California. South Carolina’s agricultural economy after 1865 was dominated by a single crop—cotton.
