A continuous increase is shown in the area of improved farm land except in the decade 1860-1870. The decrease in the amount under cultivation, reported in the census of 1870, was due to conditions growing out of the change in the system of labor which prevented a complete rehabilitation of agricultural industry. Only three other of the 100 Virginia counties reported larger improved areas in 1900, viz: Fauquier, 291,734 acres; Pittsylvania, 280,456 and Augusta, 276,459. TABLE II.--_Number of Farms by Decades: Summary, 1850 to 1900._ 1900 1,948 1890 1,818 1880 1,841 1870 1,238 1860 1,207 1850 1,256 Comparison of the number of farms reported in 1850 with the number at the last census shows an addition in fifty years of 692 farms. The great increase between 1870 and 1880 is seen at a glance. During this period the large plantations were steadily undergoing partition, in consequence of the social and industrial changes in progress after the Civil War. TABLE III.--_Farms Classified by Area--1900._ Under 3 acres 22 3 and under 10 acres 155 10 and under 20 acres 171 20 and under 50 acres 246 50 and under 100 acres 264 100 and under 175 acres 396 175 and under 260 acres 324 260 and under 500 acres 274 500 and under 1,000 acres 88 1,000 acres and over 8 TABLE IV.--_Number of Farms of Specified Tenures, June 1, 1900._ Owners 1,116 Part owners 173 Owners and tenants 18 Managers 48 Cash tenants 232 Share tenants 361 ----- Total 1,948 POPULATION. The persistent high price of Loudoun lands has discouraged increase of population by immigration. Indeed, in more than eighty-five years, except for the slight fluctuations of certain decades, there has been no increase through any medium. The last census (1900) fixed Loudoun's population at 21,948, of which number 16,079 were whites, 5,869 negroes, and the remaining 101 foreign born. This aggregate is even less than that shown by the census of 1820, which gave the county a population of 22,702, or 754 more than in 1900. The succeeding schedules, giving complete statistics of population for Loudoun County by the latest and highest authority, were taken from United States Census reports, collected in 1900 and published in 1902. _Population, Dwellings, and Families:_ _1900._ _Private Families._ Population 21,948 Number 4,195 Dwellings 4,157 Population 21,690 Families 4,231 Average size 5.2 _Private Families Occupying Owned and Hired and Free and Encumbered Homes, 1900._ Total private families 4,195