are believed to be fairly uniform,
but the following information was gathered in Lowndes County, Alabama,
so has closest connection with the prairie region of that state:

Lowndes County lies just southwest of Montgomery and there are 47
persons to the square mile. The Negroes form 86 per cent. of the
population. East and West throughout the county runs the Chennenugga
Ridge, a narrow belt of hills which separate the prairie from the pine
hills to the South. The ridge is quite broken and in places can not be
tilled profitably. The county is of average fertility, however.

There are not an unusual number of one-room cabins. Out of 74 families,
comprising 416 people, the average was 7 to the room, the greatest
number living in one room was 11. The families were housed as follows:

No. No. Largest No. Average No.
Families. Rooms. Persons. Persons.
17 1 11 6
31 2 12 (3 fam.) 6
16 3 9 5
7 4 14 6
3 5 9 5

The cabins are built of both boards and logs as indicated by cuts on
pages 43 and 44 while the interior economy is well shown by the
photograph on page 29.

Field work is from sun to sun with two hours or so rest at noon. The man
usually eats breakfast in the field, the wife staying behind to prepare
it. It consists of pork and corn bread. The family come from the field
about noon and have dinner consisting of pork and corn bread, with
collards, turnip greens, roasting ears, etc. At sundown work stops and
supper is eaten, the menu being as at breakfast. The pork eaten by the
Negroes, it may be said, is almost solid fat, two or three inches thick,
lean meat not being liked. The housewife has few dishes, the food being
cooked in pots or in small ovens set among the ashes. Stoves are a
rarity. Lamps are occasionally used, but if the chimney be broken it is
rarely replaced, the remainder being quite good enough for ordinary
purposes. The cabins seldom have glass windows, but instead wooden
shutters, which swing outward on hinges. These are shut at night and
even during the hottest summer weather there is practically no
ventilation. How it is endured I know not, but the custom prevails even
in Porto Rico I am told. In winter the cabins are cold. To meet this the
thrif