34 ECONOMICS OF LAND TENURE IN GEORGIA [34 



f This showing leads to the conclusion that there was a 

 trebling of the number of farms from 1870 to 1900, and 

 that in average size there was during the same period a 

 sixty-five per cent decrease. So far as relates to the 

 ownership of land no great significance can be attached 

 to these figures, inasmuch as they pertain to a classifica- 

 tion of farms and not to the ownership of these farms. 

 Since the census reckons the plots of land cultivated by 

 tenants and croppers as separate and distinct farms, it is 

 true that in many cases several farms are operated on 

 land owned by one person. For instance, suppose a 

 man owns 1,200 acres of land, which is cultivated by 

 twenty-five croppers ; in the census enumeration this 

 land would go down as twenty-five distinct farms in per- 

 haps the twenty to fifty acre group. It is evident, there- 

 fore, that the census figures throw no distinct light upon 

 the important question as to whether the lands of the 

 state are falling into the hands of the few or into the 

 (hands of the many. 1 



A resume of figures given in detail in the appendix* 

 presents the following view of tendencies in landowner- 

 ship among the whites for thirty-one typical counties of 

 the state : 



^he inadequacy of these census returns together with the impression 

 that in his immediate neighborhood many holdings of land were very 

 large and seemed to be growing larger, led the writer to go in search of 

 trustworthy data bearing on the subject. Through the kindness of the 

 comptroller-general of Georgia, Mr. Wm. A. Wright, he was allowed 

 access to the manuscript tax digests of the various counties of the state 

 kept in that gentleman's office at the state capital. The archives of this 

 office contain an almost complete set of these tax returns for each county 

 from 1873 (or '74) down to the present time. Through a two months' 

 examination of the digests the figures tabulated in the appendix were 

 obtained. 



* Infra. 



