The Negro's Agricultural Opportunity 59 



is from three to four times the number in these 31 counties. 

 This indicates that only about one proprietorship in six 

 was, in 1902, a Negro proprietorship. At the same time, 

 the increase from 514 Negro proprietorships in 1873 to 

 5,221 in 1902 indicates that whi le the numb er of Negro 

 prop rietorships is small r the rate of increase is extremely 

 f ast. The white proprietorships are also increasing, but 

 not at so great a rate. In 1902 they numbered 26,957, as 

 against 17,255 in 1873, an increase of over 50 per cent. The 

 old plantation area is therefore to some extent being re- 

 distributed in smaller holdings. The Negro is acquiring a 

 few of these parcels. 



2. Size of Holdings. — The chief point of difference in the 

 Negro holdings and the white holdings is found in the dif- 

 ference in size. All over the State the colored landlords 

 own much smaller tracts than those of t he white landlords. 

 Thg_ distributions of l andholdings in Table 5 indicates 

 that the median size of Negro holding in 1902 w as 33 acres, 

 while the median size of white holding was 216 acres. 

 Alldunng the period trom 1873 to 1902, both the average 

 and median size of white holding occurred in the 100 to 500 

 acre group, the average size of Negro holding moved from 

 the 100 to 500 acre to the 50 to 100 acre group in 1880, 

 since that date it has decreased from 94 to 64 acres. 

 The fact that the median size of Negro holding has de- 

 creased by one-half, i. e., from 63 to 33, while the average 

 size has decreased by only one-third, indicates the great 

 effect which the few exceptional Negro land-holders owning 

 over 500 acres have on the arithmetic average. One of 

 these 1,000 acre holdings has more effect than 50 of the 

 20 acre holdings, in the determination of the average. The 

 median, on the other hand, is not affected by these excep- 

 tional cases, and the rapid growth of the large number of 

 small farms especially in the groups under 50 acres, lower 

 the median rapidly. 



