abor force to develop the country
planters have been led to offer higher wages, better houses, etc. There
is about the farming district an air of prosperity which is not
noticeable to the East. The country is particularly adapted to cotton,
the yield is heavier, about a bale to the acre if well cultivated,
though the average is a little less, the staple is longer, and the price
is about a cent a pound higher, than in the hills. Fertilizers are
seldom used and are not carried in the stores. Some of the lands which
have been longest in use have been harmed by improper tillage, but the
injury may easily be repaired by intelligent management.

In the Delta the average size of the plantations is large, but the
amount of land under the care of the tenant is smaller than in other
sections. About 20 acres is probably the average to one work animal. The
soil is heavier, requiring longer and more constant cultivation. For
this land a rental of from $6 to $8 per acre is paid, while plantations
will rent for a term of years at an acre. A good deal of new land is
brought in cultivation by offering it rent free to a Negro for three
years, the tenant agreeing to clear off the timber and bring the soil
under cultivation. On some plantations no interest is charged on goods
advanced by the Negro usually pays 25 per cent. for all money he
borrows. The white planter has to pay at least 8 per cent and agree to
sell his cotton through the factor of whom the money is obtained and pay
him a commission of 2.5 per cent. for handling the cotton.

The plantation accounts of three families follow for the year 1901. They
live in Washington County, Mississippi, in which the Negroes form 89 per
cent. of the total population.

The first family consists of three adults and one child under 14. They
own two mules, two cows, ten pigs and some chickens. They also have a
wagon and the necessary farm implements.

Their expenses were enlarged, as were those of the other families, by an
epidemic of smallpox.

Debit. Credit.
Doctor $39.50 Cotton $826.80
Blacksmith 1.85 Cotton seed 147.00
Implements 15.05 -------
Clothes 102.55 $973.80
Provisions 42.10 856.95
Rent 175.07 -------
Extra labor 53.50