112 Journal of the Mitchell Society [June 



The percentage of whites among the farmers does not differ much 

 from that among the total population, except that it is decidedly 

 larger in the poorest region and smaller in the coast strip; in the 

 latter case perhaps because of the scarcity of good water in the rural 

 districts, a condition which negroes can endure better than whites. 



White farmers have the smallest farms and poorest buildings in 

 the Cape Fear region, where white illiteracy is most prevalent, and 

 the other extreme in all three particulars is the coast strip, long char- 

 acterized by large plantations of rice, sea-island cotton, and other 

 crops not grown much in the interior. There the average white farmer 

 cultivates over eight times as much land as the negro, and has a home 

 worth nearly nine times as much. As already noted under the head 

 of illiteracy, the negroes vary less in different regions than the whites. 

 They seem to prosper most in the Piedmont region and least in the two 

 regions along the coast ; but that does not necessarily indicate that the 

 coast negroes are not the most contented. 



Looking at the last two lines of the table it will be noticed that the 

 cultivated acreage and building values of white farmers increase with 

 the proportion of negroes, just as the illiteracy for the same race de- 

 creases, which is contrary to the opinion held in some quarters that the 

 presence of an inferior race in large numbers tends to lower the civil- 

 ization standards of the superior race. 



In the state as a whole the farms of white men decreased in size 

 between 1900 and 1910 (following a pretty general tendency through- 

 out the country, correlated with increasing- population and increasing 

 agricultural efficiency), while those of negroes increased a little. The 

 average white farmer's buildings doubled in money value during the 

 same period, while the negro's increased nearly 2^2 times. Part of this 

 increase of value is only apparent, as explained under the head of 

 fertilizers a few paragraphs back, but after making allowance for that 

 substantial improvement is evidertt. Just how long this had been in 

 progress is not certainly' known, for the census made no returns of 

 farm-building values prior to 1900, nor did it separate the races of 

 farmers until then. 



The relations between soil, population, race, education, improved 

 land, farm areas, building values, etc., pointed out here, are not pe- 

 culiar to South Carolina by any means, but have been found to apply 

 in much the same way in Georgia, Alabama, and other southeastern 

 states, a fact which should be of considerable interest to geographers. 



Florida Geological Survey. 



