A continuous increase is shown in the area of improved farm land except in the decade 1860-1870.  The decrease in the amount under cultivation, reported in the census of 1870, was due to conditions growing out of the change in the system of labor which prevented a complete rehabilitation of agricultural industry.

Only three other of the 100 Virginia counties reported larger improved areas in 1900, viz:  Fauquier, 291,734 acres; Pittsylvania, 280,456 and Augusta, 276,459.

TABLE II.—­Number of Farms by Decades:  Summary, 1850 to 1900.

1900     1,948
1890     1,818
1880     1,841
1870     1,238
1860     1,207
1850     1,256

Comparison of the number of farms reported in 1850 with the number at the last census shows an addition in fifty years of 692 farms.

The great increase between 1870 and 1880 is seen at a glance.  During this period the large plantations were steadily undergoing partition, in consequence of the social and industrial changes in progress after the Civil War.

TABLE III.—­Farms Classified by Area—­1900.

Under 3 acres                 22
3 and under 10 acres         155
10 and under 20 acres        171
20 and under 50 acres        246
50 and under 100 acres       264
100 and under 175 acres      396
175 and under 260 acres      324
260 and under 500 acres      274
500 and under 1,000 acres     88
1,000 acres and over           8

TABLE IV.—­Number of Farms of Specified Tenures, June 1, 1900.

Owners 1,116
Part owners 173
Owners and tenants 18
Managers 48
Cash tenants 232
Share tenants 361
                      -----
  Total 1,948

POPULATION.

The persistent high price of Loudoun lands has discouraged increase of population by immigration.  Indeed, in more than eighty-five years, except for the slight fluctuations of certain decades, there has been no increase through any medium.

The last census (1900) fixed Loudoun’s population at 21,948, of which number 16,079 were whites, 5,869 negroes, and the remaining 101 foreign born.  This aggregate is even less than that shown by the census of 1820, which gave the county a population of 22,702, or 754 more than in 1900.

The succeeding schedules, giving complete statistics of population for Loudoun County by the latest and highest authority, were taken from United States Census reports, collected in 1900 and published in 1902.

Population, Dwellings, and Families:

1900.                 Private Families.
Population    21,948        Number           4,195
Dwellings      4,157        Population      21,690
Families       4,231        Average size         5.2

Private Families Occupying Owned and Hired and Free and Encumbered Homes, 1900.