GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA 2/5 



neeroes there was greater uniformity, about one-third being above 

 the average and two-thirds below.* In central Florida about 8% 

 of the negro farmers had larger farms than the average white 

 man, while the corresponding figure for the whole State was about 

 7%, and for Marion County only about i^'/c . The greatest in- 

 equality in our area is in Osceola County, w-here only 9% of all 

 farms (for both races, but there are so few negroes that the re- 

 sults would be much the same for whites alone) are above the 

 average in size. But the largest farms are cattle ranches, with 

 very little improved land, and if improved land alone was consid- 

 ered Osceola mjight not show^ up very different from some of the 

 other counties. 



If we only had similar graded figures for acreage of improved 

 land, value of land and buildings per farm, yield of different crops, 

 etc., the results would be very significant. But in the absence of 

 such data we can safely assume that the resulting curves would all 

 be steepest in their higher portions, as we already know to be the 

 case with those for ages of the population, grades of school chil- 

 dren (fig. 43), cities arranged in order of size, mountains in or- 

 der of height, rivers in order of length, etc. 



CROPS 



Relative Importance 



In the regional descriptions the relative importance of the prin- 

 cipal crops for 1909, 1913-14 and 19 17- 18 has been indicated, 

 without specifying how much of the total crop value is contributed 

 by each, except sometimes in the case of one or two near the head 

 of the list. Table 36 shows for each of the more important crops 

 what percent it made in 1909 of the total crop value in each region 

 for which we have statistics, as nearly as can be ascertained from 

 the 13th U. S. census. The value of each crop in each county is 

 not given by the federal census as it is by the State census, but it 

 has been estimated by assuming that the value per bushel, pound, 



*From these curves it can be determined that the median sizes of farms 

 in the seven central Florida counties that had over 100 negro farmers in 1910 

 were about 43 acres for vi^hites and 30 for negroes ; that is to say, there were 

 just as many farms above as below these sizes. But the average sizes for the 

 two races, as shown in Tables 34 and 35. were 102.5 and 43.5 respectively. 



