7. THE BLACK BELT. 88 



than counties, makes it difficult to estimate the popula- 

 tion of the region accurately, but there seems to have 

 been in 1910 about 49 inhabitants to the square mile, 

 most of them negroes. 



As in many other essentially agricultural regions with 

 a similar density of population (e. g., parts of Middle 

 Georgia, Middle Tennessee and Illinois, and most of Iowa 

 and Missouri), the population decreased a little in the 

 decade just past. The towns grew, but this was more 

 than offset by the decrease in the rural districts. The 

 principal reason for this state of affairs seems to be that 

 the soil of such areas is so fertile that nearly all the ara- 

 ble land was taken up long ago, and as the farmers be- 

 come more efficient with the increase of agricultural 

 knowledge, improvement of farm machinery, etc., fewer 

 of them are needed to cultivate a given area, and most 

 of their sons have to seek their fortunes in town or in 

 newer regions. Wherever that is the case further in- 

 crease of population usually comes about only through 

 the establishment of manufactures, as is well illustrated 

 in the Tennessee valley (region lb). 



Some optimists like to believe that the present "back 

 to the farm" agitation will soon increase the agricultural 

 population of all these fertile regions again, but past ex- 

 perience does not lend much support to such a belief. It 

 is easy to say that the large farms can be subdivided 

 and cultivated more intensively, but it has not worked 

 out that way in other states, except in the vicinity of 

 manufacturing cities. 



Conditions in Alabama are somewhat different from 

 those in the Middle West, though. Before the use of 

 commercial fertilizers became common in the black belt, 

 say about 25 years ago, much of the soil had become 

 somewhat impoverished by the prolonged cultivation of 

 cotton, and overrun with Johnson grass and other per- 

 sistent weeds; and since that time the sandy soils far- 

 ther south, which respond generously to fertilization and 

 are much more easily tilled and less subject to weeds 

 than those of the black belt, have drawn thousands of 

 progressive young men in that direction, leaving a large 

 proportion of women, old men and negroes behind. 



