Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History

Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization. 131
even more perhaps than with other classes of people, Washington would appeal
to their pride and even to their vanity. He was fond of telling them that they
were the salt of the earth. One of his favorite stories was about the farmer who
keeps his best potatoes for himself and his family and sends the speckled ones to
town; keeps his tender young chickens and sends the old tough ones to town;
keeps his rich milk and sends his skimmed milk to town. While there may never
have been quite such a farmer the story had its element of truth, and
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helped to make the farmer appreciate his good fortune and his importance in the
scheme of things.
In 1910, when the last Federal Census was taken, 503 Negro farm owners in
Macon County, Booker Washington's home county, owned 61,689 acres, or an
average of more than one hundred and twenty-two and one-half acres of land
per man. This is probably the largest amount of land owned by the Negroes of
any county in the United States. Certainly this was true at that time. The better
class of Negro farmers has greatly increased during the past thirty years until at
present from 90 to 95 per cent. of the 3,800 Negro farmers in the county operate
their own farms either as cash tenants or owners. The increase in the number of
Negroes owning or operating farms has been an important factor in securing a
better quality and variety of food. They have diversified their crops and raised a
larger amount of their own food supplies, particularly meat and vegetables, and
they have produced more milk, butter, and eggs. It will be seen that Booker
Washington's voice when he reiterated over and over again, "The man who
owns the land will own much else besides," did not fall upon deaf ears.
When Booker Washington came to Macon County and founded Tuskegee
Institute, in 1881, the soil was worn out, and cotton, the chief crop, was selling
for an almost constantly lowering price. Although there were few counties with
a lower yield of cotton per acre, one-quarter of a bale, over 42 per cent. of the
tilled land of the county was devoted exclusively to this crop. Very little
machinery
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was used in the farming, the antique scooter plow and hoe being the main
reliance. The soil was rarely tilled more than three or four inches deep. There
was, in fact, a superstition among whites as well as blacks that deep plowing
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