For, of the 302 enterprises for which estimates of stock on hand were obtained 159 firms, including 46 barber-shops and 9 pool and billiard rooms that kept small stocks of cigars and tobacco, had a stock of merchandise on hand estimated at less than $50; 20 others ranged between $50 and $99; 38 others had stock on hand in amounts between $100 and $299, while 23 fell between $300 and $599. Thirteen enterprises kept a stock estimated between $600 and $1,000; six ran from $1,000 up, while seven were unknown. In a word, classified by amount of merchandise kept on hand, the firms fell into three classes, the largest class was composed of those having a stock valued at less than $50, the next class grouped those between $50 and $600, and the third and smallest class contained those with stock on hand valued at $600 and above. It will be of help to see in detail how enterprises in each class were grouped according to estimated valuation of merchandise on hand, so Table XXIV showing this is given (p. 112). 3. GROSS RECEIPTS IN 1907 AND 1908 The final and concluding item in measuring the magnitude of Negro business enterprises is the amount of gross receipts of the firms covering a given period of time. For this purpose the years 1907 and 1908 were selected, the first because the greater part of it was before the panic of 1907, the second instead of 1909 because a completed year at the time this canvass was made. A close study of the accompanying table shows that the panic had considerable effect upon the gross receipts of these firms. For example, in 1907, 32 firms had gross receipts less than $1,000; in 1908, 38 firms were in the same group; in 1907, 37 firms did a business of between $1,000 and $1,999; in 1908, 38 firms had the same fortune. And even this does not always show the falling off in gross receipts of the individual firm unless the decrease was sufficient to carry it into a lower group. Of the total 309 Negro enterprises, 118 were established too recently to have gross receipts in 1907 and 1908, and 63 did not furnish sufficient evidence, so they are classed as doubtful and unknown. This leaves, therefore, 128 enterprises about which sufficient statements of gross receipts were secured to justify discussion. The figures for these, however, were carefully ascertained. For 115 establishments the exact figures were taken from records kept by the firms for the years 1907 and 1908, or the larger part of those years, while the other 13 are estimates based upon careful statements from proprietors and employees of their receipts for months or weeks at different seasons of the two years.