The Negro's Agricultural Opportunity 63 



The same is true of ownership in the Upper Piedmont. 

 In 1900 only 10 per cent of the Negro farms were operated 

 by owners. The number of Negro farms was 12,781, and 

 the number of owners was only 1,371. By 1910 the num- 

 ber of farms operated by Negroes increased to 18,295, of 

 which 2,053 were operated by owners. It is evident that 

 while the number of owners in the Upper Piedmont was 

 small up to 1900, since 1900 there has been a marked in- 

 crease. 



A summary of the foregoing facts indicates that land- 

 ownership among Negroes has made some headway in the 

 Coast and southwest counties of the Black Belt, but very 

 little in other parts of the Black Belt. It has recently ex- 

 tended into the Wiregrass and Upper Piedmont. In all 

 parts of the State, however, the Negro holdings are small, 

 and the tendency is toward still smaller holdings, which 

 approximate in size the 20 to 50 acre, or one man farm. 



NEGRO TENANTS. 



As tenant farmers the Negroes of Georgia operate over 

 5,700,000 acres of land, or considerably more than one-fifth 

 of all land in farms. More than 4,100,000 acres of this 

 land is classed by the census as improved. The aggregate 

 value of the land, buildings and farm implements and ma- 

 chinery of Negro tenant farms is more than $115,000,000. 

 In addition there were on their farms 79,000 dairy cows, 

 20,000 work horses and 94,000 work mules. In 1909 their 

 farms produced 827,000 bales of cotton and 5,880,000 bush- 

 els of corn. Thus almost one-fourth of the agricultural 

 capital of the State is used by Negro tenants, and a large 

 share of the agricultural production is due to their labor. 

 The interests of the State are vitally bound up with what 

 these tenants do and how well they use the capital entrusted 

 to them. The steps by which Negro tenants have attained 



