The Ruin of the Old Regime 47 



ties in Georgia. These counties were selected from all sec- 

 tions of the State and may therefore be considered fairly 

 representative of the State as a whole. The above table (3) 

 is a rearrangement of the results of Banks' study and indi- 

 cates the distribution of land proprietorships according to 

 size in acres^ 2 



This table indicates that the predominant type of holding, 

 all during the period was 100 to 500 acres in size. In fact, 

 this group contained more than fifty per cent of the holdings 

 in 1873 and but slightly less than fifty per cent of the hold- 

 ings in 1902, and all during the period both the average and 

 median size of holding fell within the 100 to 500 acre group. 

 The holdings of more than 500 acres have decreased slightly 

 in number, while the holdings of less than 500 acres have 

 increased rapidly. This policy of retaining their large 

 tracts as long as possible was adhered to largely because, 

 among the Black Belt planters, large landed estates have 

 been and, to an extent, still are the basis of aristocracy. The 

 proprietorship was held intact as long as possible. Some- 

 times it was cultivated by laborers and sometimes rented out 

 in small tracts to tenant farmers. Furthermore, 700,000 

 acres of "new" land was included in proprietorships in these 

 counties. (This is evident in the table from the increase 

 in total acreage from 6,790,000 in 1873 to 7,470,000 in 

 1902.) Much of this new land was taken up in large tracts 

 in the southern part of the State and held speculatively. 

 The greater part of it was not used for agriculture immedi- 

 ately, and much of it has not up to the present been in- 

 cluded (under the census definition) in farms. This is 

 indicated by the fact that the census shows an increase of 

 only 300,000 acres in "land in farms" in the whole State 

 from 1860 to 1910. It thus appears that while some of the 

 large proprietorships have been divided into a number of 

 small farms, their disappearance has been almost balanced 



12 Banks, opp. cite, Appendix Table D. Distribution corrected. 



