g about to see that the land is cultivated in order to
insure repayment of their loans. If their advice and suggestions are not
followed, or if the crop is not cultivated, the supplies are shut off.
On many plantations even the portion of the land to be put in cotton is
stipulated. The great bulk of the cotton crop is thus raised under the
immediate oversight of the white man. There is little call for any great
skill on the part of the laborer. No wonder the crop of the Negro
approximates that of the white man. It is to be further remembered that
cotton raising has been the chief occupation of the Negro in America.
The Census gives another illustration of the unhappy effects of
attempting to cover very diverse conditions in one statement in the map
Vol. VI, plate 3. From this one would be justified in believing that the
average farm under one management in the alluvial lands of Mississippi
and Louisiana was small. As a matter of fact they are among the largest
in the country. The map gives a very misleading conception and it
results wholly from attempting to combine divergent conditions.

The quotation from Mr. Smith touched upon another result of this
segregation. Where the whites are the farmers the farms are smaller and
better cared for, more fertilizers are used, and better results are
obtained. The big plantation system has caused the deterioration of
naturally fertile soils. Of course, there must come a day of reckoning
wherever careless husbandry prevails.

City conditions are more or less uniform in all sections. The
geographical location of the farmer, however, is a matter of
considerable importance not only as determining in large measure the
crop he must raise, but as limiting the advance he may be able to make
under given conditions. It is estimated that about 85 per cent of the
men (Negroes) and 44 per cent of the women in productive pursuits are
farmers. Their general location has been shown. For convenience we may
divide the territory into five districts: (1) Virginia and Kentucky,
above the limit of profitable cotton culture. (2) The Atlantic Sea
Coast. (3) The Central belt running from Virginia to Central
Mississippi. This includes several different soils, but general
conditions are fairly uniform. (4) The Alluvial Lands, which may be
subdivided into the cotton and cane districts. (5) Texas. These
different districts will be treated separately, except Texas, which is
not included.

In summing up this