350 



GEOEGIA. 



GEORGIA. The fiscal year closed October 

 1C, 1866. At that time there was a cash bal- 

 ance in the treasury of $71,752. The assets of 

 the State consist of shares of banks and rail- 

 roads amounting to $1,126,900. These are all 

 estimated as almost at par in' United States cur- 

 rency, except about $273,000 of bank stock 

 which must be put at a low valuation. The 

 bonded debt of the State is $5,706,500, of which 

 the sum of $2.675,500 is in old bonds, the first 

 of which fall due in 1868, and annually there- 

 after to 1872 in such amounts as render the 

 payments easy, until the latter year, when 

 $750,000 fall due. The Comptroller states that 

 the assets of the State may be safely estimated 

 at $1,000,000, and the Western and Atlantic 

 railroad, which for several years paid an interest 

 of over six per cent, into the treasury on 

 $7,000,000, and was valued in 1862 by the 

 Legislature at $7,849,224, besides taxable prop- 

 erty. The following details show the total 

 value of various items of property with other 

 returns exhibited on the tax digest of 1866. 

 They are regarded as exceedingly low figures, 

 and do not embrace the counties of Mclntosh, 

 Rabun, and Ware, the returns of which would 

 have affected the general result but to a small 

 extent. 



Land , $103,112,52400 



City and town property 80,396,181 00 



Money and solvent debts 84,521,678 00 



Merchandise 10,933,11300 



Shippingand tonnage 215,667 00 



Stocks, manufactures, etc 4,120,489 00 



Household and kitchen furniture 1,182,408 00 



Property not enumerated 28,751,667 00 



Total value of property returned $222,183,787 00 



Total value of taxable property 207,051,677 00 



86,909 



65,909 



2,182 



103 



44 



31 



140 



20 



2 



25,432 



Polls of whites 



Polls of negroes . 



Professions 



Dentists 



Artists 



Auctioneers 



Billiard tables 



Ten-pin alleys 



Public raoe-tracks 



Number of sheep. 



Number of sheep killed by dogs in 12 months 



Number of dogs 



Number of children between 6 and 18 years of 



age 132,485 



Number of children between 16 and 18 years of 



age, as guardian for 5,771 



Number of hands employed, between 12 and 65 



years of age 139,988 



Number of maimed soldiers 914 



Numbgr of acres of land 80,116,929 



.The total number of acres of land returned 

 in 1860 was 33,845,289 ; making a decrease as 

 compared with 1866 of 3,228,860. The valua- 

 tion in 1860 (specie currency) was $161,764,- 

 955, in 1866 $103,112,524. The average value 

 per aero in 1860 was $4.85; in 1866, $3,42, 

 being a decrease of $1.43 per acre without 

 depreciation of currency. The value of city 

 and town property in 1860 was $35,139,415. 

 Money and solvent debts were returned in 1860 

 at $107,336,258, equivalent to $161,004,387 

 United States currency. Merchandise was re- 

 turned in 1860 at $15,577,193, equivalent in 

 the present currency to $23,365.789. The 

 total value of property (exclusive of slaves) in 



1860 was $369,'627,922, equivalent to $554, 

 441,883 United States currency. The numbei 

 of slaves in 1860 was 450,033, valued at $202,- 

 694,855; other property, $369, 627, 922 ; making 

 a total of $672,322,777, amountirfg in currency 

 to $1,008,484,165. Total value in 1866, $222,- 

 183,787; decrease since 1860| $786,254,876. 

 The number of polls of whites in 1860 was 99,- 

 748. The following losses of property not re- 

 turned on the tax digest of 1866 were also 

 stated by the Comptroller : 



Losses of railroads, since 1860 $15,000,000 



Losses of banks 30,000,000 



Public buildings, churches, etc 10,000,000 



$55,000,000 

 osses shown above . . . . 786,254,876 



$841,254,876 



This shows that almost four-fifths of the en- 

 tire wealth of Georgia has either been destroyed 

 or rendered unproductive since 1860. The tax 

 of the State was only one-sixth of one per cent. 

 in 1866. The Comptroller says: "Our rail- 

 roads have been repaired, commercial inter- 

 course with the world reopened, cities and 

 villages which were but a few months since 

 masses of charred ruins rebuilt as if by magic, 

 and our planting interest, though less pros- 

 perous than heretofore, owing to the change of 

 labor and unpropitious seasons, has not been 

 less active. We have every reason to hope 

 that this is but the beginning, the ground-swell 

 of a great and glorious future, if fortune will 

 continue to favor us. Though the finances of 

 our people are still much embarrassed, the 

 high price of cotton and a few good crops will 

 entirely relieve their indebtedness." 



The University of the State has been re- 

 opened under very favorable prospects and 

 with sufficient assets belonging to the institu- 

 tion to remove almost entirely any future need 

 of assistance from the State. 



On March 12, 1866, the Legislature appro- 

 priated $200,000 to buy corn for the indigent 

 poor of the State. With a portion of this sum 

 183,958 bushels were bought at St. Louis at a 

 cost of little less than a dollar, and issued to 

 over forty-five thousand persons,- or over four 

 and a half bushels per head. 



The returns of the year show that the State 

 has lost over one hundred thousand producing 

 laborers since 1863. Although it is not prob- 

 able that the number of laborers will continue 

 to decrease in the same ratio as during the last 

 three years, yet there are causes at work which 

 threaten rapidly to lessen the number and effi- 

 ciency of the negro laborers. The high prices 

 offered and paid for this class of laborers in the 

 rich cotton-growing regions of the Lower Mis- 

 sissippi and the West, continue to withdraw a 

 large number of the best negro laborers from 

 the less' productive sections of the South, and 

 all the indications now are, that their ultimate 

 home will be the rich cotton lands of the West. 

 The Comptroller also states in his report that, 

 "it is an established fact that the mortality 



