ctation that later payments would be
forfeited and the land revert. There are some enterprises which are
above suspicion. I am not referring now to private persons or railroad
companies who have sold large tracts to the Negroes, but to
organizations whose objects are to aid the blacks in becoming
landholders. The Land Company at Calhoun. Ala., started in 1896, buying
1,040 acres of land, which was accurately surveyed and divided into
plots of fifty acres, so arranged that each farm should include
different sorts of land. This was sold to the Negroes at cost price, $8
per acre, the purchasers to pay 8 per cent on deferred payments. The
sums paid by the purchasers each year have been as follows:

1896--$ 741.03. Found later to be borrowed money in the main.
1897--$1,485.15. Largely borrowed money.
1898--$ 367.34. Men paying back borrowed money. Advances large.
1899--$ 374.77.
1900--$1,649.25. Money not borrowed. Advances small.
1901--$ 871.49. Bad year. Poor crops. Money not borrowed.
1902--$2,280.42. Advances very small. Outlook encouraging.

There have been some failures on part of tenants, and it has been
necessary to gradually select the better men and allow the others to
drop out. The company has paid all expenses and interest on its capital.
A second plantation has been purchased and is being sold. There is a
manager who is a trained farmer, and by means of the farmers'
association already mentioned much pressure is brought to bear on the
Negroes to improve their condition. The results are encouraging. In
Macon County the Southern Land Company has purchased several thousand
acres which it is selling in much the same way, but it is too early to
speak of results. Even at Calhoun but few of the men have yet gotten
deeds for their land.

A word regarding the methods of the Southern Land Company will be of
interest. The land was carefully surveyed in forty-acre plots. These are
sold at $8 per acre, the payments covering a period of seven years. The
interest is figured in advance, and to each plot is charged a yearly fee
of $5 for management. In this total is also included the cost of house
and well (a three-roomed cabin is furnished for about $100, a well for
$10). This sum is then divided into seven equal parts so that the
purchaser knows in advance just what he must pay each year. The object
of the company is to encourage home ownership. Until the place is paid
for control of the planting, etc.,