the poorest accumulators buy the greatest amount of groceries, but the data here presented do not show this. In short, the larger average amount of family living obtained from the farms by the higher classes of accumulators reflects a higher standard of living rather than a reduction in food purchased.

TABLE 18-Family living expenses of different classes of accumulators

If the total amount of family living cost be taken as an index of standard of living, the greatest difference in standards will be found between the poorest tenant class and the best owner class of accumulators, the latter having a family living cost 2.4 times as much as the former.

Food raised on the farm probably influences the standard of living more than the same value of purchased family living supplies. In the first place, it is usually somewhat undervalued by the farmer; and in the second place, it is, as a rule, of better quality than the same kinds of foods purchased. Of the total difference in family living cost between the best and poorest classes of tenants 69 per cent is accounted for by the difference in amounts received from the farm. On the other hand, of the total difference in family living cost between the best and poorest owner classes only 36 per cent is accounted for by the difference in the amounts received from the farm. In short, the amount received from the farm is a more important factor in the higher standards of the best tenants than in the case of the best owners.

DISTRIBUTION OF EXPENDITURES FOR FAMILY LIVING

During the calendar year 1921 the average expenditure for living by tenants on the farms studied was $455, as compared with $681 for owners. (Table 19.)

Including the value of living furnished by the farm, tenants spent for all items of family living approximately $70 for each member of the family, while owners spent approximately $108 for each member of the family. As previously stated, the portion of family living produced on the farm probably raises the standard of living more per dollar of value than does the portion of family living purchased. The value of food obtained from the farm was two-thirds as much for each person in tenant families as for each person in the families of owners.

TABLE 19.-Average cost of all family living and of selected classes of items for 1921

1 Meat, garden, poultry, and dairy products raised on farm.

Tenant families purchased an average of $83 worth of food during the year. This was only 64 per cent as much as the food raised and consumed on the farm. The families of owners purchased an average of $98 worth of food during the year, which was 53 per cent as much as the amount of food raised and consumed on their farms.

Tenants gave to church and charity on an average $8.65, whereas owners gave slightly more than twice this amount. On the other hand, tenants spent more for tobacco and other personal expenses than did owners.

SIZE OF FAMILY AND OF HOUSE

A common form of disability in negro life is poor housing. Conditions in the section for which this study was made are probably much better in regard to housing than are conditions in certain other parts of the South where negro population predominates. Among the operators interviewed, tenant houses averaged 4.3 rooms as compared with 5.2 rooms for houses of owners. (Table 20.) The size of tenant families was, on an average, 6.6 persons, as compared with 6.3 persons for the owners. Thus there were 1.5 persons for each room among tenants and 1.2 persons for each room among owner families.

These facts do not suggest serious overcrowding in the sense in which this term is applied to city conditions. The principal defect is found in the condition of the houses and in their environment. The comparative condition of the houses for the two tenure classes is indicated best by the figures on average value of farm houses, which were $391 for tenants and $1,147 for owners. Thus it will be seen that there is a marked difference between tenant houses and owner houses a much greater difference than data on the average number of rooms would indicate.

TABLE 20.-Average value and size of dwellings, and size of family, by tenure class

These values, even for owners, may seem unusually low as compared 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 unquestionably undervalue their houses so far as reproduction costs are concerned. Reports on the condition of the houses 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, and 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 delivery.

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 percentage receiving daily papers.

TABLE 21.-Number and percentage of families taking various classes of newspapers and magazines

Approximately 13.4 per cent of the tenants and practically onehalf 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

for agricultural journals and those for weekly papers, this is a good showing for colored farmers, and the proportion in this survey was considerably larger than the proportion of farmers taking this type of paper among whites as ascertained from similar surveys in other Southern States.

EXTENT OF MIGRATION AND DEGREE OF STABILITY OF

OCCUPANCY

The

All of the 146 owners for whom data were available and all but 1 of the tenants at some time during their experience as farm operators had moved from one farm to another. (Table 22.) (Table 22.) The owners, with an average age of 50.6 years, had made such changes an average of 3.7 times; with the tenants, whose average age was 42 years, the average number of changes was 4. The average period between changes for owners was 6.9 years, and for tenants, 4.4 years. average period of occupancy for owners was less than half as long as the average period owner farmers in the United States as a whole reported in 1920 that they had occupied their farms. On the other hand, the tenants studied in Southampton County reported a somewhat longer period of occupancy than was reported in 1920, for tenants in the United States as a whole. It should be noted, however, that in the latter case the period of occupancy had not yet expired. For the most part, these movements were within the same community. Of the owners 60.3 per cent and of the tenants 72.3 per cent, had never changed their trading center. Thus, tenant migrations were merely local in a larger proportion of cases than for

1 Detailed information not available for total number of owners.

The degree of stability as measured by the average length of the period between changes from farm to farm is shown in Table 23. Six of the owners had an average period of occupancy less than 2 years, between a fifth and a sixth had remained on the same farm less than 4 years, about two-fifths had remained an average of less than 6 years, but more than a fifth averaged from 6 to 7 years between changes of farms. Eighty-two per cent of the tenants had remained on the various farms occupied from 1 to 5 years, nearly two-fifths of the total for less than 4 years; but about one-sixth held continuous occupancy between 6 and 7 years.

TABLE 23.-Owners and tenants classified by average number of years on various farms occupied

In Southampton County, Va., negro farmers have tended gradually to increase in relative number as compared with white farmers. Negro farmers have made encouraging progress in climbing to independent farm ownership, but the great increase in the price of farm real estate which occurred in the decade 1910 to 1920 tended to check this progress.

Since the Civil War notable progress has been made in the accumulation of wealth. The low price of land in the early post-bellum days favored the attainment of land ownership. The rapid increase in the value of timber products afforded many of these farmers a means of employing their labor profitably in disposing of the timber on their land and facilitated clearing for crops. The rapid development of the market for peanuts and the improvement in the price of cotton following the early nineties, and intensified by the World War, have also been favorable conditions. The net worth of the majority of the owner farmers has also been largely developed by the rapid increase in the price of land.

The progress achieved has been accomplished in spite of a none too favorable credit system. The majority of the farmers had not made use of the facilities of the farm-loan system, largely because they were not aware of its advantages and of the proper methods of procedure in obtaining loans. As in other parts of the South, there has been an undue reliance on store credit as a means of supplying shorttime credit needs.

Progress in accumulation is closely related to reliance on the farm. as a source of food supplies. Although the best accumulators made the largest use of home-grown foods, this reliance did not greatly reduce the dependence on store purchases, but rather tended to amplify the standard of living.

Superior education apparently had not been an outstanding reason for superiority in accumulation, although the best accumulators had attained a slightly higher grade in school than those who were less successful in accumulation.

The more successful were apparently giving their children somewhat greater educational advantages than were enjoyed by the children of the less successful. With the exception of a few of the