REPORT OF THE STATISTICIAN. 137 



the accretion by immigration will give a constantly-increasing prepon- 

 derance to the white element. As the negro may be deemed, in a rude 

 sense, a skilled laborer in the cotton-field, his services should be retained 

 there by a wise a.nd generous x)olicy on the part of land-proprietors, and 

 the value of his labor should be increased by augmenting his comforts, 

 inspiring a desire for accumulation, and improving his mental and 

 moral status. He may be made a useful co-laborer in industrial 

 advancement ; or, neglected and antagonized, ho may become an outcast 

 and a nuisance. 



FEEEDMEN LAND-0"WKEES. 



An attempt has been made to ascertain to what extent the freedman 

 has sought to provide himself with a home of his own. He is more 

 inclined to seek a lot and house in a town or village than to settle upon 

 a farm. He is of course debarred by his poverty, as a rule, from assum- 

 ing proprietorship of land. There is public land, at a low price, but 

 not in the vicinity of towns or in the fertile cotton districts. So far as 

 reported, the proportion of freedmen occupying their own land is 4 per 

 cent, in Tennessee and Alabama ; between 4 and 5 in North Carolina 

 and Georgia; 5 in South Carolina and Texas; between 5 and C in Mis- 

 sissippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas ; and 8 in Florida. The average, if it 

 fairly represents the unreported portion of the cotton area, indicates 

 that nineteen out of twenty have no homes. In some counties not one 

 in a hundred owns land. Our correspondent in Dooly County, Georgia, 

 says : "Having been census-taker in 1870, and tax-receiver, I am per- 

 sonally acquainted with every section of the county, and there are but 

 five land-owners in the county out of a voting population of 558." In 

 Catoosa, Georgia, only one in eighty owns land. In Beaufort, North 

 Carolina, one-third own the tracts on which they live, but cultivate 

 land of others. Our correspondent in Bibb, Georgia, says : " There are 

 3,000 negro adults in Bibb County ; 1,600 live in the city of Macon, 1,400 

 outside of the city. Of those living in the city, 114 own property valued 

 at $95,000. Of those living outside, 250 live in the suburbs, who are 

 principally mechanics and laborers, and make a living by working either 

 in town or country, but greatly prefer to take their chances to get work 

 in town. Necessity alone drives them in the country during the busy 

 season, (cotton-picking time, &c.) These parties own small places con- 

 taining from two to four acres, and as a general rule have tolerably good 

 houses. Their property aggregates 8100,000. One hundred men own 

 and cultivate in the county 2,500 acres, valued at $30,000. The farms 

 range in size from 5 to 50 acres. About 8 per cent, of the freedmen in 

 the county own land." Our Chickasaw, Mississippi, correspondent 

 says : " Not 3 per cent, of the negro laborers own the land they culti- 

 vate ; many more have bought and made partial payments, and may or 

 may not pay all. A much larger number rent land, say 15 per cent.; 

 they own the mules or horses that work it, and cultivate with negro 

 labor, and frequently do well. Quite a number get broke the first and 

 second years. Those who work on shares do best." 



COST AND PEICE. 



It is not practicable to obtain the exact cost of production, for the 

 reason that few cultivators keep systematic accounts. It is perhaps 

 easier to approximate the real cost of cotton than of other products of 

 agriculture ; being a prominent specialty, sometimes monopolizing the 

 resources of cultivation, it is less complicated, than mixed farming. 



