supported by the investigations of Professor Du Bois.[10] He gives the
following report of 271 families in Georgia:

Year, 1898. Price of cotton low.
Bankrupt and sold out 3
$100 or over in debt 61
$25 to $100 in debt 54
$1 to $25 in debt 47
Cleared nothing 53
Cleared $1 to $25 27
Cleared $25 to $100 21
Cleared $100 and over 5
----
271

Regarding the general situation he says: "A good season with good prices
regularly sent a number out of debt and made them peasant proprietors; a
bad season, either in weather or prices, still means the ruin of a
thousand black homes." Under existing conditions the outlook does not
seem to me especially hopeful.

ALLUVIAL DISTRICT.

=A DOUBLE CABIN IN THE DELTA.=

The Mississippi river, deflected westward by the hills of Tennessee, at
Memphis sweeps in a long arc to the hills at Natchez. The oval between
the river and the hills to the East is known as the "Delta." The land is
very flat, being higher on the border of the river so that when the
river overflows the entire bottom land is flooded. The waters are not
restrained by a good system of levees and the danger of floods is
reduced. There are similar areas in Arkansas and Louisiana and along the
lower courses of the Red and other rivers, but what is said here will
have special reference to Mississippi conditions. The land is extremely
fertile, probably there is none better in the world, and is covered with
a dense growth of fine woods, oak, ash, gum and cypress. The early
settlements, as already stated, were along the navigable streams, but
the great development of railroads is opening up the entire district.
The country may still be called new and thousands of acres may be
purchased at a cost of less than $10 per acre, wild land, of course.
Cultivated land brings from $25 up.

Considering its possibilities the region is not yet densely populated,
but a line of immigration is setting in and the indications are that the
Delta will soon be the seat of the heaviest Negro population in the
country. Already it rivals the black prairie of Alabama. There have been
many influences to retard immigration, the fear of fevers, malaria and
typhoid, commonly associated with low countries, and the dread of
overflows. Because of the lack of the l