The largest number of patents taken out by a Negro is fifty or more, by the late Granville T. Woods, of New York, and his brother, Lyates.

Woods' inventions principally relate to electrical subjects, such as, telegraph and telephone instruments, electric railways and general systems of electrical control. Several are on devises for transmitting telegraphic messages between moving trains. According to Patent Office Records, several of Woods' patents have for valuable considerations been assigned to the foremost electrical corporations, such as the General Electric Company, of New York, and the American Bell Telephone Company, of New York. Mr. Woods' inventive faculty also worked along other lines. He devised an incubator, a complicated amusement device, a steam boiler furnace and a mechanical brake.

In the list of number of patents received on inventions, Elijah McCoy, of Detroit, Michigan, stands next to Woods.

McCoy obtained his first patent in July, 1872, and his last one in July, 1912. During this period of forty years he invented one thing after another and has nearly forty patents to his credit. His inventions cover a wide range of subjects, but relate particulary to the lubricating of machinery. He was pioneer in the art of steadily supplying oil to machinery in intermittent drops from a cup so as to avoid the necessity for stopping the machine to oil it. McCoy's lubricating cup was famous thirty years ago as a necessary equipment for all up-to-date machinery.

John Ernest Matzeliger, born Dutch Guiana, 1852, died, Lynn, Massachusetts, 1889. He is the inventor of the first machine that performed automatically all the operations involved in attaching soles to shoes.

Other machines had previously been made for performing a part of these operations, but Matzeliger's machine was the only one then known to the mechanical world that could simultaneously hold the last in place to receive the leather, move it forward step by step so that other co-acting parts might draw the leather over the heel, properly punch the grip and grip the upper and draw it down over the last, plait the leather properly at the heel and toe, feed the nails to the driving point, hold them in position while being driven, and then discharge the completely soled shoe from the machine, everything being done automatically, and requiring less than a minute to complete a single shoe.

This wonderful achievement marked the beginning of a distinct
revolution in the art of making shoes by machinery. Matzeliger
realized this, and attempted to capitalize it by organizing a stock
company to market his invention; but his plans were frustrated
through failing health and lack of business experience, and shortly
thereafter he died.

The patent and much of the stock of the company organized by
Matzeliger was bought up. The purchase laid the foundation

for the organization of the United Shoe Machinery Company, the
largest and richest corporation of the kind in the world. The
United Shoe Machinery Company established at Lynn, Massachu-
setts, a school, the only one of its kind in the world, where boys
are taught exclusively to operate the Matzeliger type of machine;
a class of about 200 boys and young men are graduated from this
school annually and sent out to various parts of the world to in-
struct others in the art of handling the machine.

Some years before his death, Matzeliger became a member of a
white church in Lynn, called the North Congregational Society, and
bequeathed to this church some of the stock of the company he had
organized. Years afterwards this church became heavily involved
in debt, and remembering the stock that had been left by this col-
ored member, found, upon inquiry, that it had become very val-
uable through the importance of the patent under the management
of the large company then controlling it. The church sold the
stock and realized from the sale more than enough to pay off the
entire debt of the church, amounting to $10,860.

Negro Farmers Increasing

AGRICULTURE

There were in the United States in 1910, 6,361,502 farmers. Of these 5,440,619, or 85.5 per cent, were whites; 893,370, or 14.5 per cent, were Negroes; 24,251, or 0.4 per cent, were Indians; and 3,262 were Chinese and Japanese. The rate of increase in the number of Negroes operating farms and of Negro owners of farms was greater than the increase of Negro population, either for the country as a whole, the whole South, or the rural South.

From 1900 to 1910 the per cent. increase in the number of Negroes operating farms was: for the country as a whole, 19.6 and for the South, 20.2. The per cent increase for Negro farm owners was: for the country as a whole, 16.6; for the South, 17.6. The per cent increase in Negro population for the same period was: for the country as a whole, 11.3; for the whole South, 10.4; and for the rural South, 5.1. The highest per cent of increase of Negro farmers was, for Oklahoma, 108. Other States with large per cent increases were: Georgia, 48; Arkansas, 35; Mississippi, 28; North Carolina, 19; and Alabama, 17.

The number of Negroes owning farms in the United States was: 187,797, in 1900; and 218,972 in 1910. For the South the number was: 179,418 in 1900, and 211,087 in 1910.

In only two States, Louisiana, due to the cotton boll weevil, and West Virginia, due to mining development, was there a decrease in the number of Negro farm operators. In every State there was an increase in the number of Negro farm owners. See table below, Tenure of Farms Operated by colored farmers.

NUMBER OF NEGRO FARMS AND INCREASE, 1900-1910
FOR FIFTEEN SOUTHERN STATES

The increase in the value of farm property owned by Negro farmers of the South was especially rapid during the ten years, 1900 to 1910. Including the live stock, poultry and implements owned by Negro renters, it is found that the value of the domestic animals owned by Negro farmers increased from $85,216,337 to $177,273,785, or 107 per cent; poultry from $3,788,792 to $5,113,756, or 35 per cent; implements and machinery from $18,586,225 to $36,861,418, or 98 per cent; land and buildings from $69,636,420 to $273,501,665, or 293 per cent. From 1900 to 1910 the total value of farm property owned by the colored farmers of the South increased from $177,404,688 to $492,892,218, or 177 per cent.

Tenants Increase Slightly

By tenure the per cent division of colored farmers in the South in 1900 was: owners, 25,2; manag mants, 74.6; in

1910 owners, 24.5; managers, 0.1; tenants, 75.3. The division in 1910 of the 670,474 colored tenant farmers was: cash tenants, 285,950; share tenants, 384,524. The proportion of Negro share tenants is increasing slightly. In 1900, 51 out of every 100 Negro tenants rented on shares; 57 rented on that basis in 1910. The proportion of land in farms operated by colored owners is increasing. Of all land operated by colored farmers, 34.6 per cent in 1900 and 36.8 per cent in 1910 were in farms operated by colored owners.

TENURE NEGRO FARMERS BY DIVISIONS

Recently a very important discussion has arisen concerning the relative value of cash tenancy and share tenancy. The landlords and those speaking from their standpoint point to the fact that in general, because of supervision, the lands of the share tenants produce a larger yield than does the land of the cash tenants. Therefore, the share system should prevail. Account, however, is not taken of the fact that, in general, the share tenants are on better land than the cash tenants.

On the other hand, the Negro tenants and those speaking for them hold that the cash system gives more of an opportunity for the renters themselves as well as their land. That is, the landlord, stresses the improvement of the land while the tenant keeps in mind his personal welfare. When the late Dr. Seaman A. Knapp was questioned concerning this matter, he said: "They are both right and they are both wrong. The landlord must be interested not only in his land but in his tenant. The tenant must be interested not only in himself but in the landlord and his land. Land and labor. must be developed side by side. A system that favors the tenant to the injury of the land is bad. A system that favors the land to the injury of the tenant is equally harmful. Either system will result in the poverty of both landlord and the tenant." He pointed out that the way out of the dilemma was to have a

longer tenure contract, which would guarantee to the landlord a
fair treatment of his land and assure to the tenant "The certain
return to him of a fair return for his labor."

Average Acreage, Improved Land, and Value of Land and Buildings per Farm

PRINCIPAL CROPS RAISED BY NEGRO FARMERS DISTRIB

UTED ON A PERCENTAGE BASIS