FOOD AND LAND TENURE. 579 



comes next in importance, especially to the people of Great Britain. 

 The all-cotton, old plantation system is extinct. A mere fraction of 

 the present cotton crop is growing in the old way; almost the whole 

 comes from the small farmers, black as well as white. The tenant sys- 

 tem was almost universally adopted in the process of reconstruction; 

 improvement in agriculture is slow but sure. The dream of the freed- 

 man was forty acres and a mule, and in fact great numbers are attaining 

 that end. 



For many ;^ears after the end of the Civil War the cotton States 

 still depended upon the North for hay and upon the West for corn and 

 meat. There is probably no great force of laborers in the world who 

 can fully subsist at so low a cost as the Southern negroes. 'Hog and 

 hominy,' as it is called, bacon and cracked corn, are their choice above 

 all other kinds of food. On this ration, coupled with such fruits and 

 vegetables as they can secure, they are content. A peck of corn meal, 

 three and one-half pounds of bacon and a quart of molasses or sorghum 

 syrup is the customary ration for one week, costing six to nine cents a 

 day. All that is changing. The intelligent farmers now produce their 

 own bread and meat; some of them in excess. They are developing 

 leguminous plants — pea vines, beans, alfalfa, crimson clover and the 

 like; gradually introducing stock, and soon to fold sheep upon the 

 cotton fields, to the renovation of the soil. 



The very large proportionate number of tenants which has been 

 disclosed by the former census and will be yet more marked in the 

 present census is mainly the result of the changing conditions in the 

 cotton States; a passing phase in the South, as it is in the West; not of 

 long duration, and not implying any permanent condition of land- 

 lordism. 



In fact, in conclusion it may be dogmatically stated that both 

 wheat and cotton are becoming the excess, surplus or money crops of 

 farmers whose products otherwise suffice to sustain the farm. It is 

 therefore difficult to measure the exact cost of raising wheat. It has 

 been produced at less than one shilling per bushel, including use and 

 repairs of machinery and interest thereon, but not including any charge 

 for the rental of land, which forms a part of the income or profit of 

 the farmer. It may be dogmatically affirmed that so long as the 

 farmer in the Mississippi grain-growing States can secure to his own 

 use and enjoyment one cent a pound, sixty cents a bushel, four dollars 

 and eighty cents, or twenty shillings a quarter, the present average prod- 

 uct of wheat will be maintained, subject to variation in quantity ac- 

 cording to the season. At seventy cents a bushel new land will be put 

 under cultivation in wheat to any extent of the demand, and capital 

 will be found. The difficulty will be to procure even the necessary labor 

 still required, notwithstanding the increasing use of machinery and 



