as they are, with laws which were conceived in hatred and brought forth in a spasm of venom and revenge if they are permitted to do it, Mr. President, in their own proper way, very much more progress will be made for the negro's uplifting, for the negro's improvement than will be made if it shall be directed by men who do not know any more about it personally than I do about the political economy of the planet Mars.

CHAPTER XVII

THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE NEGRO

The economic condition of the negro farmer, 713. The economic future of the negro, 726. — City and country, 727. — Race prejudice a bar to economic opportunity, 728. The question of negro efficiency, 729.- Economic groups, 730.

68. THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE NEGRO FARMER1

Negroes on the farms may be divided into four classes: owners, cash tenants, share tenants, laborers. Share tenants differ from the same class in the North in that work animals and tools are usually provided by the landlord. Among the laborers must also be included the families living on the rice and cane plantations, who work for cash wages but receive houses and such perquisites as do other tenants and whose permanence is more assured than an ordinary day hand. They are paid in cash, usually through a plantation store, that debts for provisions, etc., may be deducted. Both owners and tenants find it generally necessary to arrange for advances of food and clothing until harvest. The advances begin in the early spring and continue until August or sometimes until the cotton is picked. In the regions east of the alluvial lands advances usually stop by the first of August, and in the interim until the cotton is sold odd jobs or some extra labor, picking blackberries and the like, must furnish the support for the family. The landlord may do the advancing or some merchant. Money is seldom furnished directly, although in recent years banks are beginning to loan on crop liens. The food supplied is often based on the number of working hands, irrespective of the number of children in the family. This is occasionally a hardship. The customary ration is a peck of corn meal and three pounds of pork per week. Usually a crop lien together with a 1 By Carl Kelsey. Adapted from The Negro Farmer, pp. 29-32, 43-51. Jennings and Pye, Chicago, 1903.

bill of sale of any personal property is given as security, but in some states landlords have a first lien upon all crops for rent and advances. In all districts the tenant is allowed to cut wood for his fire, and frequently has free pasture for his stock. There is much complaint that when there are fences about the house they are sometimes burned, being more accessible than the timber, which may be at a distance and which has to be cut. The landlords and the advancers have found it necessary to spend a large part of their time personally, or through agents called "riders," going about the plantations to see that the crops are cultivated. The negro knows how to raise cotton, but he may forget to plow, chop, or some other such trifle, unless reminded of the necessity. Thus a considerable part of the excessive interest charged the negro should really be charged as wages of superintendence. If the instructions of the riders are not followed, rations are cut off, and thus the recalcitrant brought to terms.

For a long time rations have been dealt out on Saturday. So Saturday has come to be considered a holiday, or half holiday at least. Early in the morning the roads are covered with blacks on foot, horseback, muleback and in various vehicles, on their way to the store or village, there to spend the day loafing about in friendly discussion with neighbors. The condition of the crops has little preventive influence, and the handicap to successful husbandry formed by the habit is easily perceived. Many efforts are being made to break up the custom, but it is uphill work. Another habit of the negro which militates against his progress is his prowling about in all sorts of revels by night, thereby unfitting himself for labor the next day. This trait also shows forth the general thoughtlessness of the negro. His mule works by day, but is expected to carry his owner any number of miles at night. Sunday is seldom a day of rest for the work animals. It is a curious fact that wherever the negroes are most numerous there mules usually outnumber horses. There are several reasons for this. It has often been supposed that mules endure the heat better than horses. This is questionable. The mule, however, will do a certain amount and then quit, all inducements to the contrary notwithstanding. The horse will go till he drops; moreover, will

not stand the abuse which the mule endures. The negro does not bear a good reputation for care of his animals. He neglects to feed and provide for them. Their looks justify the criticism. The mule, valuable as he is for many purposes, is necessarily more expensive in the long run than a self-perpetuating animal.

In all parts it is the custom for the negroes to save a little garden patch about the house, which, if properly tended, would supply the family with vegetables throughout the year. This is seldom the case. A recent Tuskegee catalogue commenting on this says:

If they have any garden at all, it is apt to be choked with weeds and other noxious growths. With every advantage of soil and climate, and with a steady market if they live near any city or large town, few of the colored farmers get any benefit from this, one of the most profitable of all industries.

As a matter of fact they care little for vegetables and seldom know how to prepare them for the table. The garden is regularly started in the spring, but seldom amounts to much. I have ridden for a day with but a glimpse of a couple of attempts. As a result there will be a few collards, turnips, gourds, sweet potatoes and beans, but the mass of the people buy the little they need from the stores. A dealer in a little country store told me last summer that he would make about $75 an acre on three acres of watermelons, although almost every purchaser could raise them if he would. In many regions wild fruits are abundant, and blackberries during the season are quite a staple, but they are seldom canned. Some cattle are kept, but little butter is made, and milk is seldom on the bill of fare, the stock being sold when fat (?). Comparing these negro dietaries with other dietaries and dietary standards, it will be seen that

(1) The quantities of protein are small. Roughly speaking, the food of these negroes furnished one third to three fourths as much protein as are called for in the current physiological standards and as are actually found in the dietaries of well-fed whites in the United States and well-fed people in Europe. They were, indeed, no larger than have been found in the dietaries of the very poor factory operatives and laborers in Germany and the laborers and beggars in Italy. (2) In fuel value the negro dietaries compare quite favorably with those of well-to-do people of the laboring classes in Europe and the United States.1

1 Bulletin No. 38, Office of Experimental Stations, U. S. Department of Agriculture a study of dietaries made under Tuskegee Institute.

This indicates the ignorance of the negro regarding the food he needs, so that in a region of plenty he is underfed as regards the muscle and bone-forming elements and overfed so far as fuel value is concerned. One cannot help asking what effect a normal diet would have upon the sexual passions. It is worthy of notice that in the schools maintained by the whites there is relatively little trouble on this account. Possibly the changed life and food are in no small measure responsible for the difference.

Under diversified farming there would be steady employment most of the year, with a corresponding increase of production. As it is there are two busy seasons. In the spring, planting and cultivating cotton, say from March to July, and in the fall, cotton picking, September to December. The balance of the time. the average farmer does little work. The present system entails a great loss of time.

The absence of good pastures and of meadows is noticeable. This is also too true of white farmers. Yet the grasses grow luxuriantly and nothing but custom or something else accounts for their absence; the something else is cotton. The adaptability of cotton to the negro is almost providential. It has a long taproot and is able to stand neglect and yet produce a reasonable crop. The grains, corn and cane, with their surface roots, will not thrive under careless handling.

The average farmer knows, or at least utilizes, few of the little economies which make agriculture so profitable elsewhere. The negro is thus under a heavy handicap and does not get the most that he might from present opportunities. I am fully conscious that there are many farmers who take advantage of these things and are correspondingly successful, but they are not the average man of whom I am speaking. With this general statement I pass to a consideration of the situation in the various districts before mentioned. . . .

...

In the central district life is a little more strenuous than on the seacoast. The average tenant has a one-mule farm," some thirty or thirty-five acres. Occasionally the tenant has more land, but only about this amount is cultivated and no rent is paid