2//economic
There are also fewer acres being planted in corn now than in 19^0.
In 1962 2 million fewer acres of corn were planted than in 1?40,- olsc
the total corn harvested was one-third less. What agricultural products are taking the place of cotton and corn being planted. Although.
the number of acres of rice and soybeans is being increased in tho
Delta, most of tne land not planted with corn or cotton has become
pasture and woodland.
The greater amount of land in pasture shows
tie and poultry are being raised.
all money made from selling
all farm prodo.cts, inc uding
livestock
1
»
W
1940
All money in.,
from soiling
livestock is
the colored
part
in
I960
CHART #2
that more and more cat
In 1940 for every $100 made from
selling farm products, $28 of it was
made selling cattle and poultry. In
i960, though, for every $100 of farm
products sold $40 was made from
ing livestock. (See"" rt .'•£) •
':r> 3 to °s more in-. ;.'■'■.0 :•
0.-:. j, iihav in 15-K6, and 5 times
broilers were sold in i960 than
1940.
:ell
more
in
What is important to the people
of Mississippi, part"cularly the
Negroes, is the fact that less and
less land is being planted with crops
and more and more land is becoming pasture and woodland; and even more
important, tho   iter use of machines and fertilizer in agriculture,
have resulted in the loss of   jobs.  The Mississippi Economio. Council's
report,"Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Trends and Prospects,"
talks about; It this way:  'The substantial increase in farm output has
been accomplished mainly through research and the adoption of a vast
array of management one technological improvements.  Many farmers and
farm workers have left the farm.  The 252,000 people employed on Mississippi faras comprlxe less than half the 1940 number.  The enormity
of  the Increase in farm labor efficiency made possible through better;
management and technology is emphasized when we consider that Missis-.,
sippi farms are now able to produce more than Ig- timss tho volume of
iheir 1940 output with only 45?' as many workers."
Perhaps an example taken from a report on the Mississippi Freedom
Labor Union can help put these numbers into more human terms, to shew
what this Feanp to human beings:  "What the union is fighting la the
rich farmer who operates hid plantation like a huge, inhuman Indus-  .
trial corporation.  Visitors from other countries come to Mississippu.
to see one of the world's largest plantations, the Delta Pine and
Land Corporation, which ov;ns more than 60 square miles of land in
Bolivar county alone.  They are amazed at how so few men can run so
many acres so well with so few -workers.  Delta Pine and Land Corporation, owned in England, is typical of the way bigger and bigger farm^
are raising most of the crops in this country.  From the civil war to'
about 1930 the large slave-owner's plantations were divided up among
large numbers of sharecroppers. But since 1930 the number of Negro
sharecroppers and renters has become smaller because farm land costs
too much for poor people today--$500 peracre.  And there is very little land' for sale.  For tne Negro, there is practically none at all.
Although the sharecropper has never been able to earn enough to feed
and house his family in the Delta, he at least lived on and
land.  In a sense, the land oas his to work, though not to
farmao some
own. But for