The Ruin of the Old Regime 43 



crease in number of farms operated by tenants. The an- 

 alyses of each of these three changes indicate that the plan- 

 tation system is passing, but that it is still in vogue to some 

 extent. 



The Passing of Large Farms. The first indication of the 

 disappearance of the plantation system is in the reduction in 

 the size of farms cultivated as a unit. A reduction in aver- 

 age size may indicate that the large farms are disappearing 

 or that numerous new small farms are appearing, or that 

 both of these things are happening. The census enumerates 

 as one farm, any tract of land cultivated by one farmer, re- 

 gardless of who owns it. In this way, a single plantation 

 of 2,000 acres, if cultivated as a unit by the owner with 

 laborers is enumerated as one farm, but if 1,000 acres are 

 cultivated with laborers under the direction of the owner, 

 or overseer, and the remaining 1,000 divided into twenty 

 50-acre tenant farms, it would be enumerated as 21 farms, 

 1 operated by an owner, and 20 operated by tenants. 



The passing of large farms as enumerated by the census, 

 and increase of small farms is, therefore, the general index 

 of the decay of the gang labor plantation system and the 

 rise of a system of tenants or small land owners. The f ol^ 



TABLE 2. 



Georgia Farms Classified by Size in Acres, 1860-1910. 



Size in Acres 1860 1880 1890 1900 1910 



Under 10 906 3,211 4,438 6,055 8,700 



10 to 20 2,803 8,694 10,868 13,301 20,929 



20 to 50 13,644 36,524 55,287 73,408 117,432 



50 to 100 14,129 26,054 32,316 52,251 68,510 



100 to 500 19,843 53,635 59,343 73,100 69,985 



500 to 1,000 7,076 7,017 6,061 4,718 3,950 



1,000 and over.... 3,608 3,491 2,758 1,858 1,521 



Total Farms 62,009 138,626 171,071 224,691 291,027 



Total Acres in 

 thousands . 26,650 26,043 25,200 26,392 26,953 



Average size 430 188 147 118 97 



Median size 98 92 73 69 51 



