The Economics of Land Tenure in Georgia (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 Excerpt: ...is encouraging, as showing that some members of the race take advantage of such an opportunity by planning for a permanent future income instead of an immediate gratification. Another fact is of importance in this connection. The development of cotton manufacturing in Georgia now in progress tends to increase the economic importance of the negro farmers. Thus far no account has been taken of the tendencies in regard to the size of negro holdings.1 The following table gives a resume of the figures on negro proprietorships for thirty-one counties as presented in detail in the appendix: This table shows the average size of negro holdings to be sixty-four acres, which is, as would be expected, very much smaller than the average acreage of white holdings. It is seen also that negro holdings on the average have tended to grow smaller in size, just as throughout the same period there has been a decrease in the average size of white proprietorships. In the latter case, however, the decreased size was brought about by a multiplication of the smaller holdings at the expense of the larger ones, whereas in the case of the negroes there has been an increase in the number of large as well as small holdings, though the latter have increased faster 1 Neither the census of the United States nor the reports of the comptroller-general of the state throw any light on this subject. Just as in the case of the ownership of land among the whites, information was obtained from the county tax digests. Thirty-one counties were investigated for the years 1873, 1880, 1890 and 1902, and the negro holdings were classified according to acreage as presented in the Appendix, below. than the former--a fact explaining the decrease in average size. The greatest increase has been in the number ...