The news in this publi
cation is released for the
press on receipt.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published Weekly by the
University of North Caro
lina for its University Ex
tension Division.
august 31, 1921
CHAPEL HELL, N. C.
VOL. VII, NO. 41
Editorial Board i E. C. Branson, S. H. Hobbs, Jr., L. R. Wilson, E. W. Knight, D. D. Carroll, J. B. Bullitt, H. W. Odum. Entered as second-class matter November 14,1914, at the Postoffice at Chapel Hill, N. C., under the act of August 34,1913.
ten-year GAINS AND LOSSES
It is an age old proverb that he who
cultivates the land will some day own
it. We have lived long enough to see
the great baronial estates all over Eu
rope pass largely into the hands of de
scendants of people who were once
serfs, but whose progeny has remained
with the soil. Today in France seventy-
five percent of the farmers own their
farms. In Denmark ninety percent of
all farmers are farm owners while sixty
years ago the same high percents were
tenants. And so to a lesser degree in
nearly all northwestern and western
Europe. The English tenant virtually
owns the laifd.he farms.
We are carrying in this issue of the
News Letter a table showing how the
counties of this state have increased
and decreased in Negro farm operators
during the last ten years. He who
farms the land will some day own the
soil. It is the verdict of history. A
half century ago practically all Negroes
were slaves. Today more than seventy-
five percent of all Negro farmers in
Virginia own the land they cultivate
and in this state Negro farm owners
are around thirty-five percent of all
Negro farmers. The Negroes of the
South today own nearly as much land,
farm land, as is contained in the whole
state of North Carolina—this after only
half a century. The Negro farm own
ership ratio is increasing in the whole
South while at the same time white
farm owners are a decreasing ratio.
The ratio of land ownership in the South
is in favor of the colored race. And
why? Because Negro farmers are an
increasing ratio of all farmers. During
the last ten years the white-population
increased twice as fast as the Negro
population but Negro farmers increased
16.2 percent while white farmers in
creased only 2.8 percent. Ten years
ago 25.9 percent of all our farmers in
this state were Negroes. Today they
are 28.3 percent of all farmers. And
remember, the white population gained
twice as fast as the colored, but the
white increase moved into towns and
cities while the Negroes remained on
the farm. And he who cultivates the
soil will some day own it.
Where Mainly
The counties that gained in Negro
farmers lie almost entirely in the Coast
al Plains region where the cash crops,
cotton and tobacco, are produced, and
those counties of the Hill country along
the Virginia border that grow tobacco,
Every single county in the eastern half
of the state except eight Tidewater
counties which produce little cotton or
tobacco has more Negro farmers than
ten years ago.
Lenoir Leads
There are 71.6 percent more Negro
farmers in Lenoir than ten years ago
and she easily ■ leads all the counties of
the state in ten-year gains. Wilson is
her nearest rival, the Negro farmers
having increased 57.9 percent. Other
leading counties are Pitt with a gain of
54.6 percent, Greene 50.6 percent, Pam
lico 49.2 percent. Gates 48.1 percent,
Scotland 47.5 percent, Edgecombe 47.1
percent, and Sampson 46.9 percent of
gain. These are all cotton and tobacco
areas, or are moving in that direction
as in counties like Gates and Pamlico
The counties increased in Negro
farmers almost in proportion as they
are cotton and tobacco producers. Coun
ties like Lenoir, Wilson, Pitt, Greene,
Edgecombe, Scotland, and Sampson,
that produce both cotton and tobacco,
made the highest gains, while those
where just one cash crop predominates
show lower gains.
Paradoxes
To give some idea of the rapidity
with which Negroes are supplanting
whites as farmers, we are offering some
facts. Ten years ago the Negroes in
Lenoir were 44.9 percent of all people.
Today they are 44.2 percent. But dur-
■ this ten-year period Negro farmers
as it was ten years ago. But during
the ten-year period Negro farmers in
creased 57.9 percent, while white farm
ers gained only 16.4 percent. In Pitt, an
other great tobacco county, the farms
operated by white farmers increased 6.4
percent, while Negro farmers are 64.6
percent more than ten years ago. In
Greene county, the Negro farmers in
creased five times as rapidly as white
farmers. In Gates county the Negro
farm operators increased seven times
as rapidly as white. The white farm
ers of Scotland decreased 9.2 percent
while Negro farmers increased 47.6
percent. There are today more than
twice as many colored farmers in Scot
land as white farmers. Edgecombe is
a great farm county but the Negro
farmers gained more than four times as
rapidly as white farmers. In Wash
ington county the white farmers gained
2.4 percent while the Negro gain was
46.1 percent, or around twenty times
as great. Wayne is another great farm
county and here the Negro gain in farm
operators was 42.6 percent against 15.3
percent for whites.
A Decreasing Ratio
Negroes are a decreasing ratio of
population in this state.
Ten years ago they composed 31.6
percent of our people. Today only 29.8
percent are negroes. But during this
ten-year period in 48 counties, mainly
in the great cotton and tobacco belt,
Negro farm operators gained faster
than whites. In nearly all the counties
where Negroes dwell they remained on
the farm to a larger extent than the
white people. About four-fifths of all
Negroes in the state live in these 48
counties. They are rapidly gaining as
a ratio of all farmers. Already in eleven
counties there are more Negro than
white farmers. In Scotland county there
are twice as many, and in Halifax coun-
THE GOSPEL OF WORK
Labor is life. It is all thou hast
to comfort eternity with. Work
then like a star, unhasting, yet un
resting. —Carlyle.
We are not sent into this world to
do anything into which we cannot
put our hearts. We have certain
work to do for our bread and that is
to be done strenuously; other work
to do for our delight, and that is to
be done heartily; neither is to be
done by halves or shifts but with a
will; and what is not worth this ef
fort is not to be done at all.—Rus-
kin.
several decades; only the last ten years
have shown an accelerated gain in favor
of Negro farmers. We know that at
present farming is not a profitable busi
ness, and our towns and cities are be
ing populated by white people who are
moving off the farms and who are leav
ing their home places to be operated
by Negro farmers. Solving country
life problems in such areas becomes in
creasingly hard. We o cannot hope for
the best social or economic conditions
for the whites who remain on the farm
if the farm ratio swells in favor of col
ored farmers. Cooperative marketing.
TENANCY AND THE CENSUS
Farm tenancy is still increasing in
the United States—it has done so since
1880, when statistics were first collected
—but the rate is slowing.’ In the decade
of agricultural depression. Populism,
and free silver, 1890-1900, the percent
age of tenancy rose from 28.4 to 36.3.
In the next ten years it advanced to 37
percent. Census returns issued this
week show that it is now 38.1 percent.
A certain amount of tenancy may be
healthful, for tenancy is the process by
which landless men acquire money to
buy farms, and by which men with a
little land obtain the cultivation of a
sufficient number of acres to employ
their full energies. Nevertheless, ten
ancy can so easily become a social and
agricultural evil that its growth has
been watched with concern.
It is especially pleasing to find that
where tenancy was highly excessive, in
the South, it has not risen. In the
East South Central States it was 50.7
percent a decade ago, and now is 49.7
percent. In the West South Central
States it was 52.8 percent, and is now
62.9 percent. It has fallen in Alabama,
Kentucky, Florida, Maryland, Oklaho
ma, West Virginia, and Virginia, and
remained stationary in Mississippi and
Tennessee. [Only a few of the 800
cash crop counties of the South, where
tenancy gained rapidly, are in these
border Southern states. ] This suggests,
in the first place, that the old tenant
groups are more and more able to buy
their land,'a conclusion which investi
that
end.
this process is approaching
cooperative credit facilities, and good | gations among the Negroes have pre-
rural schools and churches all depend on ! pared^us t-ccepL^In th-ec^ond place.
a relatively dense rural white popula
tion. The present population move
ments are very decidedly in favor of a
Negro farm population for the eastern
half of our state in a very few more
years. And he who cultivates the soil
will some day Swn it. — S. H. H., Jr.
A NEW ERA IN COTTON
• If the Government report on the cot
ton acreage issued July 1 is anywhere
correct it probably ushers in a new
ing the rapid increase of tenancy in the
South after 1880 to the break-up of
large farms into small holdings, and
It has been believed that the peak of
farm tenancy has been steadily moving
from East to West. The last census
indicates that this is true. In the New
England and Middle Atlantic States the
proportion of farms tilled by tenants
has fallen markedly. In the North Cen
tral States east of the Mississippi ten
ancy rose only 1.1 percent. In the North
Central States west of the Mississippi
it rose 3.3 percent. In the Mountain
States it rose almost 5 percent. This is
probably because in Illinois average
farm values have risen more sharply
than in New York, in Nebraska more
sharply than in Illinois, making it hard
er for the tenant as he goes west, com
pared with ten years ago, to push into
the farm-owner groups. Also, in the
West Central and Mountain States a
large part of the original pioneer gen
eration has in the last decade retired
from the farm. If tenancy must rise
anywhere, it is better to find it rising
in the newer sections. If it remains
j stationary in the older, we can trust
j that the day will come when it can be
held Stationary for the nation.
Very little land in the United States
can now be obtained free; our farmers
must get their holdings by inheritance
or by purchase. The Government owes
it to agriculture to help provide a cred
it system which will facilitate farm
acquisition by the last-named means.
As yet our Federal farm loan banks do
not offer loans to tenants, and an ex
tension of their service is much needed.
For the rest, anything that increases
the farmers’ prosperity will increase
ownership by the tiller.—New York
Evening Post.
NEGRO FARM OPERATORS IN NORTH CAROLINA IN 1920
Percents Increase or Decrease, 1910-20
Counties ranked from high to low. Based on Press Summaries of the 1920
Census. Farms Operated by Negroes Increased 16,2 percent. Farms Operated
by Whites Increased 2.8 percent.
Rural Social Science Department, University of North Carolina.
ty there are 3,303 Negro farmers against near „ c tv,
^ -- era in the history of the South and as-
1,368 white farmers. He who cultivates
the soil will some day own it. In our great
Coastal Plains, the important agricul
tural area of North Carolina, Negro
farmers are an increasing ratio, and a
rapidly increasing ratio. Although in
52 counties, mainly in the western half
of the state the ratio of change was in
favor of white farmers, the Negro gain
ratio in the other 48 counties was large
enough to cause the ratio for the state
at large to be decidedly in favor of the
colored race. Negro farmers increased
16.2 percent against a gain of only 2.8
percent for white farmers.
The West Decreases
During the last census period 32 coun
ties, all west of Greensboro except
eight Tidewater counties, decreased in
the number of Negro farmers. The
eight Tidewater counties that decreased
are not cash crop counties nor are they
very important agricultural counties,
with one exception. The 24 western
counties that lost Negro farmers and
eight mountain counties where there
are no Negro farmers are manufactur
ing, or grain, hay and forage, and live
stock counties and have no crop or agri
cultural system that is suited to Negro
farm cultivators. The few Negroes
who have moved to the western coun
ties have discovered that their temper
ament is not suited to food-and-feed
crop and livestock farming. They
thrive best where cotton is grown, and
they produce good crops of tobacco under
proper supervision in some processes,
especially curing.
The western half of our state will
always be relatively free from Negroes,
The eastern half, the cash crop area,
has always been the center of Negro
population. The agriculture
east best suits them and the fact that
they are so well adapted to the cash
crop system largely explains why the
eastern half of our state cannot free
itself from this profitless system. And
the eastern counties are gaining in Ne
gro farmers at ratios that are appall
ing. This means that these counties
will find it harder and harder to move
Rank
sures a permanently higher range of
prices in the future.
This we say because the curtailment
in acreage shows that through adver
sity the farmers have at last learned
to cooperate in reducing the production
and have thereby been made conscious
of their power to control prices.
However small the next crop may be
it is impossible to figure out a scarcity
during the coming season but far-sight
ed men are now upon notice that the
'South is no longer under compulsion to
grow cotton unless it is profitable.
At just what price the farmer will
consider that he is repaid for his labor
and risk no one can say, but.it is safe
to assume that it will be well above the
pce-war average and that an adequate
supply of cotton hereafter will depend
upon what can be obtained for it.
Theo. H. Price.
INCREASES
County
mg
indreased 71.6 percent while white farm-, ^j^g^sified agriculture,
ers Increased only 9.6 percent. The;
Nepo farmer gam was nine times the ^ ^d^
"oraS'take Wilson, the .-t to-1 s^^
county,
ratio is almost
A FARM COLONY
Location in North Carolina of a colony
of 500 families.for agricultural purposes
is a possibility, according to a statement
issued by the Chamber of Commerce of
Greensboro. The Record tells this story.
The local chamber is in touch with an
eastern syndicate, the object of which
is to colonize about 500 families for ag
ricultural purposes. At the present
time the syndicate has 300 families who
are ready to go as soon as acreage has
been secured. The syndicate would like
to secure from 10,000 to 75,000 acres of
land that could be used for agriculture,
stock, and fruit purposes.
This syndicate proposes to establish a
town site wherever the land is secured
and to establish a bank, large cannery,
commissary, school, church, creamery,
and other enterprises , that would go to
make up a community.
While this syndicate is now consider
ing locating in another state, if suitable
land can be had in North Carolina the
colony can be obtained. The Chamber
of Commerce would like *to hear from
parties who have such a body of land to
offer near Greensboro; if not near
Greensboro, near the center of the
state. Anybody who has anything along
this line should communicate with the
Secretary, C. W. Roberts, of the Cham
ber of Commerce, promptly.—Lexing
ton Dispatch.
Lenoir
Wilson
Pitt
Greene
Pamlico
Gates..’
Scotland
Edgecombe..
Sampson '. .
Washington..
W ayne
Caswell
Person
Duplin
Martin
Franklin ....
Orange
Perquimans ..
Anson
Harnett
Warren
Wake
Onslow
Beaufort
Nash
Granville ....
Rockingham.
Moore
Johnston ....
Currituck ...
Bertie .:. .
Craven
Halifax
Richmond....
Alamance....
Polk
Camden
Jones
Lee
Percent
increase
71.6
Rank
INCREASES
County
Chatham
Hertford
Rowan
Pender
Vance
Chowan..
Cherokee
Clay !
Dare
Graham
Haywood
Madison
Transylvania
Yancey
DECREASES
Percent
increase
6.1
Pasquotank 10.5
Northampton.
Davidson
Guilford
Montgomery .
Iredell
Durham
Rutherford...
Cabarrus
1.4
Columbus
1.6
Tyrrell
2.1
Forsyth
2.4
Ashe
4l0
Mecklenburg
5.9
Yadkin
5.9
Bladen
6.5
Cleveland
7.2
Jackson
8.2
Alleghany .
8.5
Alexander
8.8
Union
12.3
Catawba
13.1
Hyde
15.8
Randolph
16.8
Stanly
17.6
Davie
17.6
Swain
17.9
Surry
18.6
Stokes
20.1
Gaston
22.2
Burke
28.3
Wilkes
32.1
Lincoln
..,. ' 36.7
Carteret
37.4
Brunswick
37.7
Henderson
38.3
McDowell
38.7
New Hanover
43.7
Buncombe
48.3
Macon
50.3
Note: (1) Avery was formed in 1911 out of Watauga, Caldwell, and Mitch
ell, and does not appear in the 1910 Census. In the area occupied by these four
counties the number of farms operated by Negroes decreased 46.1 percent be
tween 1910 and 1921.
(2) Hoke was formed in 1911 out of Cumberland and Robeson. In the area
occupied by these three counties the number of farms operated by Negroes in
creased 22.5 percent during the same period.
(3) Cleveland, Currituck, Dare, Durham, Gaston, Harnett, and Wake had
their boundaries slightly changed during the last Census period, but the terri
tory gained or lost was so small in each instance, that the figures for them in
the above table are approximately correct.
! ^ -i ’i , a:
Iff. M ’ i(
III
I a