254 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Table II. 

 Preference of the Negro for Cotton, 



White farmers in south. 

 Negro " " " 



A.11 Farmers in 

 South 



1,869,721 

 734,362 



Cotton Farmers. 



531,333 

 527,969 



Percentage of Cotton 

 Farmers to Total. 



28.4 

 71.9 



As a rule, not without some exceptions, those counties in the 

 south which have a large negro poj)ulation are inferior in productive- 

 ness to those of similar natural quality in which the negro population 

 is small. The productiveness of the farms of white farmers, north 

 and south, is, with rare exceptions, greater per cultivated acre than 

 the productiveness of lands cultivated by negro farmers.* The fairest 

 basis of comparison is the productiveness of share farmers of the 

 two races; for in this class practically all the management and all 

 the labor are done by the farmer and his own family. Not only do the 

 financial limitations and the small fields of share farmers preclude 

 them from hiring labor, but whites will not work for negro farmers, 

 nor will the negro, if he can avoid it, work for the small white farmer, 



Table III. 



Productivity of Farms per Improved Acre by Tenure and by Race of 



Farmer. 



* Tlie figures of the twelfth census are arranged in such a way as to conceal 

 the shortcomings of the negro farmer, though there was doubtless no intention 

 of producing such a result. 



t Tlie census tables giving production of farms of various tenures divide 

 population into ' white ' and ' colored.' In some states the number of Chinese 

 farmers is so great as to make anything more than a mere approximation of 

 production by negro farmers of various tenures possible; therefore I did not 

 attempt it, but took the productivity of negro farmers of all tenures as given 

 in a separate table. 



J A large portion of the rich river bottoms are share-farmed to negroes. 



