608 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 590. 



sense of official honor. The committees on 

 forestry, on education, industrial condi- 

 tions, on child labor, have helped to develop 

 an enlightened public opinion on all these 

 vital questions in an effort which covers 

 the entire country. 



Progress of the Negroes of Virginia as 



Property Owners: Chakles B. Edger- 



TON, Washington, D. C. 



This is an examination of the rate at 

 which property has been acquired by the 

 negroes of Virginia, with especial reference 

 to the question whether the economic char- 

 acter of the present generation of negroes, 

 as indicated by this test, is inferior or 

 superior to that of the generation which 

 was trained in slavery and freed by the 

 war. The data are derived from the 

 census and from the local assessments for 

 taxation. The property of negroes was 

 first shown separately on the assessment 

 books in 1891, and the last assessment here 

 used is that of 1903, giving an interval of 

 twelve years. 



The number of negro farmers in Virginia 

 who owned their farms free of encumbrance 

 in 1890, according to the census, was 

 13,097. If we assume that the negroes 

 started without property in 1865, the num- 

 ber of negro farmers in the state who ac- 

 quired full ownership of their farms be- 

 tween 1865 and 1890 amounted on an aver- 

 age to 524 a year. But during the next 

 ten years the number was 913 a year, or 

 75 per cent, greater. If all farm owners, 

 mortgaged as well as clear, are included, 

 the number was 547 a year from 1865 to 

 1890, and 1,394 a year, or two and a half 

 times as many, from 1890 to 1900. 



On the same assumption that the negroes 

 had no property at the close of the war, 

 the assessments for taxation indicate that 

 they acquired 26,000 acres of land a year 

 from 1865 to 1891, and 38,000 acres a 

 year, or almost half as much again, from 



1891 to 1903; and rural buildings to the 

 value of $53,000 a year from 1865 to 1891, 

 and to the value of $110,600, or more than 

 twice as much, from 1891 to 1903. 



In proportion to their numbers, the 

 negroes increased their acreage of land, 

 and the total value of their rural real es- 

 tate, two fifths faster from 1891 to 1903 

 than from 1865 to 1891, and the value of 

 their rural buildings twice as fast. 



The number of negro farmers who 

 owned their farms clear of encumbrance in 

 1890 was only 26 per thousand of rural 

 negro population, according to the census; 

 in 1900 it was 42. The negroes had only 

 a third as many unencumbered farm 

 owners as the whites in proportion to their 

 rural population in 1890 ; in 1900 they had 

 half as many. 



The assessed value of town real estate 

 owned by negroes was $4,650,000 in 1891, 

 and $6,350,000 in 1903. It increased in 

 considerably greater ratio than the town 

 negro population, while the assessed value 

 of the town property owned by whites did 

 not increase in so great a ratio as the white 

 town population. 



In Virginia, at least, the negroes have 

 increased their property holdings more 

 rapidly since the ante-bellum negroes 

 ceased to be an important economic factor 

 than they did while the older generation 

 occupied the stage. In view of this un- 

 questionable statistical fact, it can hardly 

 be doubted that the economic efficiency of 

 the present generation, at least in Virginia, 

 is greater than that of the generation that 

 was trained in slavery. 



Eaihvay Conditions in Texas: 0. B. 



Colquitt, State Railway Commission, 



Austin, Texas. 



How much of the stock and bond issues 

 of Texas railroads is 'fictitious' no man 

 can tell without access to the old books 

 of the companies, almost all of which have 



