74 ECONOMICS OF LAND TENURE IN GEORGIA [74 



tegroes returned for taxation 1,251,714 of the 31,013,973 

 acres of improved land in the state, 1 that is, they own 

 four per cent of the total farming area, or one in every 

 twenty-five acres. Thus it is seen that while the negroes 

 compose nearly one-half of the population (46.7 per cent), 

 they possess only one twenty-fifth of the land. This is 

 assuming that the lands returned for taxation are unin- 

 cumbered. Without doubt many of these farms are 

 mortgaged either to former owners because bought on 

 the instalment plan or to merchants for supplies furn- 

 ished. But granting that the titles are clear to all the 

 land the tax digests attribute to them, the fact remains 

 that the negroes have not become masters of much land 

 in Georgia. 



Mention has already been made of some of the forces 

 which seem to explain the early localization of negro 

 holdings. These influences were presented as being aids 

 to land acquisition rather than otherwise. It now re- 

 mains to refer to the forces that have operated to hinder 

 the negroes from coming into possession of a larger share 

 of the farming lands. These forces are to be found, first, 

 in the psychological organization of the negro, and 

 secondly, in his environment. 



The first of these causes is, of course, the more funda- 

 mental. The typical negro is improvident ; he does not 

 make plans for the future and organize his present forces 

 for the execution of the plans. The acquisition of a 

 farm means the immediate consumption of less than is 

 produced. If it be the disposition of any people to con- 

 sume up to the limits of production, or, to state the 

 same thing from another point of view, to produce only 

 up to the demands of immediate consumption, then it 



1 Report of the Comptroller-General of Georgia for 1903, pp. 202, 166. 



