Cash crops are those grown to sell at market.

Cash crops are just what the name says, crops grown for cash or to sell. Soybeans are usually a cash crop, grown to sell on the market to bring in money needed to operate the farm. Corn on the other hand was not usually considered a cash crop because it was used to feed the livestock on the traditional family farm. Today corn is a cash crop when grown and sold for making ethanol. Tobacco is a traditional cash crop, but more and more all crops are grown as cash crops. Animals are being raised in confinement by contract with corporations as the family farms are getting fewer and larger and growing mostly crops.

Tobacco is a big cash crop plus it think cotton is a bit smaller but in the days of the civil war it was very good as a cash crop