INTRODUCTION. 17 



smaller animals has been so little studied that it does not 

 seem worth while to mention them at all. 



The information about population and agriculture is 

 based mostly on government census reports, which give no 

 adequate data about the smaller regions, as already ex- 

 plained, but for the larger ones are far more accurate than 

 what might be gathered by one person in many years. The 

 simplest statistical index of the resources of a region, and 

 at the same time one that can be determined most accurate- 

 ly, is density of population. In regions where there is little 

 mining, manufacturing, fishing, or foreign commerce, and 

 the population gets its living pretty directly from the soil, 

 whether through lumbering, grazing, or raising crops, the 

 number of inhabitants is pretty closely correlated with soil 

 fertility.* In Alabama and other southeastern states the 

 soil also influences the percentage of negroes and various 

 other sociological features, as will be made evident farther 

 on. 



Where possible the density and racial composition of 

 the population are given all the way back to 1820 (the first 

 census taken after Alabama was admitted to the Union), to 

 show the changes that have taken place since then and give 

 us some idea of what may be expected in the near future. 

 The census of 1870 is disregarded, however, for that having 

 been taken in the days of reconstruction is admittedly inac- 

 curate for most of the southern states. 



The information obtainable about agricultural condi- 

 tions and operations from recent censuses is pretty compre- 

 hensive, though still leaving much to be desired. The most 

 significant fact in this line about any region is probably the 

 relative amount of "improved land," i. e., that which is cul- 

 tivated, pastured (not counting free range and other wood- 

 land pasture) , or occupied by farm buildings and lots. That 

 has been returned for each county at every census from 

 1850 to 1910, and is of course a good indication of soil 

 conditions. Every region exhibits some variations in soil 

 fertility, and the richest usually have some spots too poor 

 or wet or rocky to cultivate profitably, and the poorest a 

 few rich spots ; so that at a given time the region with the 



*0f course in some parts of the world there are fertile soils that 

 cannot support a large population because the climate is too cold or 

 too dry; but there are no such hindrances in Alabama or within sev- 

 eral hundred miles thereof. 



