The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-05-07

Trucking crops in the East need
rain badly. Peas and strawberries
are being shipped.
PROGRESS OF SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE
In an article by agricultural stats
tician Powers, of the Census Bureau,
in a recent issue of the Manufac-
turer's Record, the following sug-
gestive, and, to many people, sur
prising statements were made:
"The fourteen Southern States
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, GeOr-
gia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland,
Mississippi, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vir-
ginia, and West Virginia-in 1890
contained a total population of 49,
10000. In 1900 that population was
1921, $50. The ten years witnessed
an increase of 1901, sos, or 20 1 per
cent. The corresponding percentage
of increase for the other States and
Territories was 21.7, and for the
nation as a whole, 81. For the
Northern States nearly if not quite
80 per cent. of the increased pOpula-
ton were located in cities, villages
and hamlets, and only about 20 per
cent. were domiciled upon the farms.
In the Southern States the move
mani Of nOnr7aA zion xua Of tho ODDC
site character. The gain in rural
population, that is outside of cities,
villages and hamlets, constituted IS
per cent, while that of the cities,
villages and hamlets, or urban pop
u~latiOn, vas only 30 per cent. of the
total increase. The rural population
of tho Southern States increased
from Is, 1872, 555 in 1890 to II, 768, 279
in 1900. This was an addition of
2,640, 724 or ia per cent, OF nearly
the same as that of the total pOpula-
ton. In the other States and Terri
tories the percentage of growth in
rural population is given as only
90. The gain in rural population in
those States, from 20, 6S7, 453 in 1890
to %, $50, 1874 in 1900, includes all the
r~eDOrte@ increase in the incorporated
townships in Massachusetts and
Rhode Island, many of which con-
tain fair sized cities and villages. If
the census statistics in these latter
States were reported on the same
basis as in the Southern States, the
increase in the rural population in
The Northern AMI Western States
would unquestiOnably DE not 90 per
cent, but less than z per cent. The
relative addition to the rural or agri-
cultural population in the South
was, therefore, more than twice that
in the North and West. That popu-
lation increased during the decade in
every one of the Southern States.
"Of The fourteen States mentioned,
Virginia re 5istered the smallest reIa-
tive increase. Its percentage of
gain was rs. This seems small in
comparison with the corresponding
percentage of Florida or Texas, and
yet it was substantially the same as
that of the Northern end Western
States as d whole, and OF those States,
ter-Maine, New Hampshire, Yer
mont, Connecticut, New York, New
Jersey, Ohio, Michigan, Nebraska
and KanSas-had a smaller rural
population in 1900 than in 1890. The
net gain in the rural population Of
the fourteen States was 2,64O, 724,
while that for the other States and
Territories was only 1908, 881. If
Oklahoma and Indian Territory are
included for the Southern States, las
they are N nearly all official publ
Cations, ana allowances made for the
inclusion in Massachusetts and
Rhode Island W III ban populations
in township reports, it will be found
that the relative increase in the
Southern agricultural population in
ten years is about four times that of
the remainder of the nation. With
such IA large actual and relative gain
in rural population, the student of
social and economic subjects is at
once made aware of the enormous
str 'des in the development of the
agricultural resources of the South
In the closing ten years of the cen
fury"