On this place in 1902, H. W., a man aged 68, with wife and three children, owning a horse, a mule and two cows, did as follows. He and his son-in-law are buying eighty acres. They made a good showing for the first year under considerable difficulties and on land by no means rich: Debits. Credits. Fertilizer $ 34.88 Cotton $390.32 Whitewashing 3.00 Liming 19.76 Lease contract 180.00 Cash 130.36 Interest 3.12 ------- $371.12 ------- Balance Jan. 1, 1903 $ 19.20 This leads me to mention the question of land ownership on the part of the Negroes. This has not been mentioned hitherto for several reasons. In the first place the data for any detailed knowledge of the subject are not to be had. Few states make separate record of land owned by the blacks as distinct from general ownership. The census has to depend upon the statements of the men themselves, and I have heard tenants solemnly argue that they owned the land. Again a very considerable proportion of the land owned is also heavily mortgaged, and these mortgages are not always for improvements. Nor is it by any means self evident that land ownership necessarily means a more advanced condition than where land is rented. Moreover, a considerable proportion of the _farms_ owned are so small that they do not suffice to support the owners. Conditions vary in different districts. In Virginia it has been possible to buy a few acres at a very low price. In parts of Alabama, or wherever the land has been held in large estates in recent years, it has often been impossible for the Negro to purchase land in small lots. Thus, though I believe heartily in land ownership for the blacks and believe that well conducted land associations will be beneficial, I cannot think that this alone will solve the questions confronting us. Retrogression is possible even with land ownership. Other things are necessary. On the basis of existing data the best article with which I am acquainted on this subject appeared in the _Southern Workman_ for January, 1903, written by Dr. G. S. Dickerman, in which he showed that among the Negro farmers the owners and managers formed 59.8 per cent of the total in Virginia, 57.6 per cent in Maryland, 48.6 per cent in Kentucky, falling as we go South to 15.1 per cent in Alabama, 16.4 per cent in Mississippi, and 16.2 per cent in Louisiana, rising to 30.9 per cent in Texas. Evidently the forces at work are various. Within a few months, at the suggestion of Mr. Horace Plunkett, of the Irish Agricultural Organization Society, a new work has been taken up, whose course will be watched with great interest. I quote from a letter of Mr. Plunkett to Dr. Wallace Buttrick, of the General Education Board: