TENANCY AND OWNEKSHIP AMONG NEGRO FARMERS 
23 
These values, even for owners, may seem unusually low as com- 
pared with those in other sections of the country; but it should be 
borne in mind that much of the lumber from which they are built 
is sawed locally. Furthermore, figures given by the farmers unques- 
tionably undervalue their houses so far as reproduction costs are 
concerned. Reports .on the condition of the nouses are of a very 
general nature and must be considered thus in order to be seen 
in their true light. Fifty-eight of the 111 tenants reporting on the 
condition of their houses stated them to be in moderately good 
condition; six reported poor condition; and 47 said their houses 
were in good repair. Contrasted with this are the reports of 145 
owners, of whom 98 said their houses were in good condition; 47 in 
medium condition; and none in poor condition. 
USE OF AUTOMOBILE, TELEPHONE, AND MAIL DELIVERY 
In many sections of the country the automobile, the telephone 
and the rural free delivery have done much to improve domestic, 
community, arid social life of farmers. Of the farmers included in 
this survey, only 10.7 per cent of the tenants and 26.2 per cent of 
the owners reported automobiles. None of the tenant families and 
only nine of all the owners, or 3.4 per cent of all farmers interviewed, 
had telephones. Even the town of Adams Grove was, at the time of 
this survey (1921), without telephone service. All families reporting 
on the Question of mail had rural free deliverv. 
PERIODICAL READING MATERIAL IN HOMES 
The proportions of tenants and owners who received regularly 
daily or weekly papers, magazines, and agricultural journals are 
shown in Table 21. Subscribing to daily papers is far less prevalent 
in this section than in others where similar surveys have been made 
among white farmers. Only 3 out of the 112 tenants and 25 out of 
the 149 owners took daily newspapers. The service of daily mail 
delivery to these farmers would lead one to expect a higher per- 
centage receiving dairy papers. 
Table 21. — Number and -percentage of families taking various classes of newspapers 
and magazines 
Opera- 
tois re- 
porting 
Percentage of families subscribing to- 
Tenure class 
Daily 
papers 
Weekly 
papers 
Maga- 
zines 
Agricul- 
tural 
journals 
No peri- 
odical lit- 
erature 
Tenants 
Owners 
Number 
112 
149 
| 
Per cent Per cent 
2. 7 13. 4 
16. 8 49. 
Per cent 
1.8 
2.0 
Per cent 
36.6 
69.8 
Per cent 
57.1 
21.5 
All operators 
261 10.7 33.7 
1.9 
55.6 
36.8 
Approximately 13.4 per cent of the tenants and practically one- 
half of the owners took local or other weekly newspapers. Of the 
112 tenants, 41 took agricultural journals, and more than two-thirds 
of all the owners subscribed for this type of periodical. Considering 
the fact that there is probably some overlapping between the figures 
