128 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



ments," is asserted in substance by many. Oar correspondent in Con- 

 cordia, Louisiana, says : " The negroes were so well drilled in the ways 

 of working cotton before the war that they are mere machines, and it 

 would be impossible to change much, if a chaago was desirable. The 

 difiBculty of gathering the crops now made with the plow and hoe 

 makes improved labor-saving implements of no use. Furnish a cotton- 

 picking machine, and improved implements will follow." 



" The old iron turnings-plow, made by the awkward country black- 

 smith, has been replaced" in all progressive sections by the various im- 

 provements of popular manufacturers, largely made in the South and 

 to some extent in the North and West. 



Inc ulture, improvements mainly consist in greater thoroughness of 

 preparation, deeper plowing prior to planting, with more frequent and 

 very shallow cultivation afterward. Subsoiling is more in vogue. Our 

 correspondent in Shelby, Alabama, says : " In preparation of lands, 

 subsoiling is practiced by 15 per cent, of the farmers. In cultivation, 

 side-harrows are used by about 30 per cent.; the remaining farmers pre- 

 pare and plant as their ' daddies ' did forty years ago." 



DECREASE IN SIZE OF FARMS. 



The average size of farms in the cotton States in the past three 

 decenuinal periods is thus reported, together vdth total number: 



From 1850 to 18G0 the average increased in Florida, Alabama, Mis- 

 sissippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas. In the succeeding ten years none 

 of the States appear to have enlarged their average. The tendency has 

 always been to reduction, except during the early years of the period 

 of extension in cotton-growing, when cultivators were providing, by 

 purchase of large tracts of cheap lands, for the system of spoliation 

 which followed, involving the clearing annually of new lands to replace 

 exhausted and abandoned fields. 



On investigation of the comparative reduction of the different classes 

 of farms, arranged as to size, the curious fact is found that in the case 

 of each one of the ten States the number of farms of each class above 

 100 acres is decreased, and of every class below 100 acres is increased. 

 The average decrease of large farms in all is 22 per cent., and the 

 increase in the number of farms less than 100 acres in size is 5o per cent. 



The largest ratios of increase are found in South Carolina and Louisi- 

 ana, respectively 121 and 120 per cent. Florida gives 74 per cent. ; 

 Tennessee, GO; Mississippi, 05; Texas, 55; North Carolina, 41; Alabama, 

 39 ; xVrkansas, 33 ; Georgia, 27. 



