Formerly Specialist in Farm Studies, Bureau of Agricultural Economics1

PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF STUDY

In the South, agriculture always has been and still is the principal economic activity of the negro race. The negro population of the 16 Southern States (including Delaware) constituted, in 1860, 92.2 per cent of the total negro population of the United States. In 1920, regardless of the fact that the negroes had been free for over 50 years, 85.2 per cent of the total negro population of the country still lived in the Southern States. Negroes constitute 27 per cent of the population of these States, and 75 per cent of them live in rural districts. Approximately 29 per cent of all the farms in these 16 States are operated by negroes.

Since the World War, agricultural and industrial conditions have been such as to cause an unprecedented wave of emigration of negroes from the South to northern industrial centers. This migration is, in

The field work in gathering the materials for this bulletin was performed mainly by W. S. Scarborough. The study was prepared under the direction of L. C. Gray, and the bulletin for the most part has been Written by him because of the resignation of Doctor Scarborough.

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part, the result of the general nationwide movement from country to city. Unquestionably, however, there are other potent influences responsible for this migration.

Calculations of the increase of negroes in the cities having a negro population of 25,000 or more show that there was an increase of 28.5 per cent between 1900 and 1910, and an increase of 42.2 per cent for the following decade. Between 1910 and 1920, rural negro population decreased for the country as a whole by 3.4 per cent, whereas negro urban population increased 32.6 per cent during the same time. The relatively larger rate of negro increase in cities as compared with rural districts is largely an expression of migration from the rural districts, for the natural rate of increase of negroes in rural districts. exceeds greatly the corresponding rate in cities. Available vital statistics show that in cities negro birth rates are lower and negro death rates much higher than in rural districts.3

These tendencies, so significant for the future of the negro race, raise the question as to the economic condition of negro farmers. The present study was undertaken to reveal the conditions prevailing among negro farmers in a selected district of southern Virginia, a region where plantation organization has largely disappeared and where negro farmers, whether owners or tenants, enjoy a comparatively large measure of independence. The essential aim was to determine the extent or lack of progress with particular reference to attendant circumstances, especially conditions of land tenure. *

The section selected for this study is situated in the western part of Southampton County, Va., between the towns of Drewryville and Adams Grove. This county is in the southeastern part of Virginia adjoining the State of North Carolina (fig. 1). It is in the Tidewater section of the State, which is characterized in general by level to gently undulating topography. Three rivers border or traverse the county, the Blackwater, the Meherrin, and the Nottoway. The bottom lands of these streams are often swampy and covered with a heavy growth of timber, much of which is not of a commercial nature. A description of the soil in the Census of Agriculture for 1880 is as follows: 5

The chief soil is mostly of a light gray sandy character, with yellow or red subsoil, which occupies about one-half of the lands in this region, and is timbered with pine, oak, hickory, dogwood, maple, and poplar. The light, fine sandy surface soil is from 4 to 6 inches thick, and is easily tilled. The chief crops produce here are corn, cotton, peanuts, and potatoes, but the soil is apparently best adapted to corn Very little damage is done by washing or gulleys on the slopes.

* * *

A second quality of land, designated as "White Oak Land," comprises about one-fourth of the lands of the region, and has a timber growth of oak, gum, pine, etc. The soil is a clay, 4 inches in thickness, over a blue clay subsoil.

This soil is adapted to the raising of cotton, grain, and clover, especially clover.

In the section studied probably 75 per cent of the farmers are colored. This is a section where the negro is independent of supervision of the white farmers and has made progress largely through his

Rossiter, W. S. Increase of Population in the United States, 1910-1920. Washington, Govt. Print. Off., 1922. U. S. Bureau of the Census. Census Monograph I, p. 128.

3 Rossiter, W. S. Increase of Population in the United States, 1910-1920. Washington, Govt. Print. Off., 1922. U. S. Bureau of the Census. Census Monograph I, p. 130. For

It should be noted that the data on which this study is based were obtained in the spring of 1921. this reason, data on value of property should be considered as of the date of the survey and it should be recognized that considerable changes in values have occurred since that time.

U. S. Census Office. Tenth Census, 1880. Report on Cotton Production in the United States. Washington, Govt. Print. Off., 1884, pt. II, p. 636. Census Report, vol. VI.

own efforts. It is important to hold this fact in mind in placing interpretation on the data presented in the following pages.

The survey method was used in making this study. Schedules were formulated with regard to the points on which information was desired, and these were used in the field in personal interviews with the farmers. One hundred and twelve tenants and 149 owners, a total of 261 farmers, were thus interviewed.

CHANGES IN AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATION OF SOUTHAMPTON COUNTY SINCE 1860

CHANGES IN UTILIZATION OF FARM LAND

Marked changes in the utilization of farm land in Southampton County have occurred since 1860, as shown by Table 1. One noticeable change is the increase of more than 133 per cent in the number of farms in the county since 1890 although there was comparatively little change in the total acreage. In 1870 there were 636 farms in the county, a decrease of 3 since 1860. The number increased slightly less than 160 per cent during the next decade, but there was a decrease from 1880 to 1890. There was a steady increase in the acreage in farms from 1890 to 1910, but in the next decade there was a notable decrease, a tendency manifested in all the South Atlantic States except West Virginia and Florida.

TABLE 1.-Utilization of land for farming purposes, in Southampton County, census years, 1860-1920

A livestock unit consists of either 1 cow, 1 horse or mule, 5 sheep, or 5 hogs. Goats and burros not included in these figures.

2 Total crop acres reported but acres of peanuts not reported.

In 1920 the percentage of farm land improved had risen to nearly the same point as in 1860. The most significant change with regard to the use of farm lands probably is in percentage of farm land in crops since 1880, when the first complete data on crop acreage were made available for the area. Since that date the percentage of farm land in crops has increased from 15.5 per cent to 34.7 per cent. The increase in the proportion of land in crops since 1890 is largely a reflection of the large increase in the area planted in cotton and peanuts, which are the two main money crops of the section. The change in relative importance of livestock on the farms is shown by the fact that in 1860 there was 0.057 of a livestock unit for each acre in farms, while in 1920 this figure had changed to 0.070 of a livestock unit for each acre in farms, or an increase of 22.8 per cent.

Much of the county is in woodland, the percentage in this class of land being practically what it was in 1870, the first time for which data are available for woodland. At present, 57.9 per cent of the total farm acreage of the county is classed as woodland. Much of this is not used for any farm purposes whatever, not even for grazing, but some revenue is obtained from the woodland by the sale of hickory timber for industrial purposes and other timber for railroad crossties.

CROPS GROWN IN THIS SECTION

More than 99 per cent of all the land in crops was devoted to three crops, which in the order of amount of acreage devoted to each were peanuts, corn, and cotton.

Corn has always been one of the main crops in the county as far back as crop acreage statistics are available. The census figures for the county as a whole show that, in 1919, 34.8 per cent of all crop land was in corn. The percentage of all crop land in corn for the farms surveyed was 36.8 per cent, slightly above the census figure.

Peanuts form the most important crop of the section. About 45 per cent of all crop land on the farms surveyed was planted to this crop. The 1919 census shows that 36.4 per cent of the total crop acreage of the county was in peanuts. It would seem, therefore, that negro farmers emphasized peanut production more than did the average farmer of the county, possibly because a larger proportion of the soil adapted to peanuts is occupied by negroes than by white

farmers.

Cotton was secondary to peanuts on practically all of the farms surveyed. Both peanuts and cotton are distinctly cash crops and the machinery needed for planting and growing these two crops is almost identical. The machinery required for harvesting and preparing the two crops for market is different, but this machinery is rarely owned by the individual farm operator, especially the tenant operator. For these reasons, cotton and peanuts are frequently interchanged from year to year in a manner that is adjustable to the relative price prospects of the two crops. If the price of peanuts is low and the price of cotton is high, as was the case in 1921 when the survey was made, the area planted to cotton is usually much above the average. This increase in acreage of cotton is nearly always made at the expense of the peanut area. When price conditions favor peanuts, the shift is in the other direction. This shift is made with practically no extra expense and inconvenience, and it is probably fortunate for the farmers of the area that they have two readily interchangeable cash crops.

This position of cotton as related to peanuts is strikingly shown in Table 1 (p. 4 which shows that the acreage of cotton has increased since 1900, when prices were extremely low, from 4.7 per cent of the total crop acreage to 14.7 of the crop acreage in 1919, when prices of cotton as compared with prices of peanuts were relatively high.

CHANGES IN SIZE OF FARMS

The large increase in number of farms without a corresponding increase in farm acreage suggests a decrease in size of farms. The change reflects a process of subdivision of the large holdings of the ante bellum period, a process which was very rapid from 1870 to 1880, and again after 1890. The average size of farms decreased from