his question further,
whether any of the negroes along the alluvial bottoms are
obtaining ownership of lands in fee-simple?
--A. In very few instances in the alluvial lands. When they
make enough money to buy a home they generally go to the
hill country, where land can be bought at a much more
reasonable price.

Q. With what amount of accumulation will a negro get up and
go to the hills?
--A. There are negroes right in my section of the country
who have an accumulation clear of all expenses of from a
thousand to $3,500 a year.

Q. Do they remain or do they go and buy homesteads for
themselves?
--A. They probably remain until they accumulate a few
thousand dollars, and then go and buy a home. We encourage
it, from the fact that we want the others behind to be
stimulated to do the same thing. I will say in that
connection that the future of the negro of the South is the
alluvial lands.

Q. These plantations?
--A. Not only these plantations particularly. What I mean by
alluvial lands are the alluvial lands on the coast and the
alluvial lands of the Mississippi Valley, the rich lands
where the negro relies on his own energy and exertion rather
than on his brains. There is an immigration coming into the
older States now.

Q. The older Southern States?
--A. The older Southern States. As they come in the negroes
gradually give way and go to the richer lands. For instance,
one railroad last year brought into the Mississippi Valley
over 10,000 negro immigrants.

Q. From what States?
--A. From the Atlantic and Gulf States.

Q. What became of them?
--A. They were scattered along the alluvial lands of the
Mississippi Valley. As the negroes of the Mississippi Valley
either immigrate from that valley and go in different
directions and buy land, the planters of the Mississippi
Valley send out to the older States and replace them with
labor from those States. A negro in the older States,
probably, to make his support would have to cultivate 15 or
20 acres of land, whereas a negro in the Mississippi Valley
can make his support on 8 or 10 acres of land.

Q. Will this result in the ownership of the alluvial lands
being transferred to the negro?
--A. No, sir; because as he makes money he goes off.