(126)

PERCENTAGE OF ALL FARMS OPERATED BY TENANTS, BY COUNTIES: 1920.

Standing renters were defined as tenants who paid for the use of the land a fixed quantity of some farm product rather than an amount in cash. These tenants in 1910 were included with the cash tenants, chiefly because the quantity of the product to be given for the use of the land was fixed in advance and did not depend upon the size of the crop. The number of standing renters in the South in 1920 was 104,996, and the number of cash tenants 219,188, the standing renters representing 32.4 per cent of the combined total.

The most important difference between the cropper and the regular share tenant lies in the greater degree of supervision exercised by the landlord in the case of the cropper. the cropper. As a convenient means of classification, however, croppers were defined as share tenants to whom the landlord furnished the necessary work stock. The number of croppers in the South in 1920 was 561,091, and the number of regular share tenants, 651,224. The croppers thus formed 46.3 per cent, or nearly one-half, of all the share tenants in the South.

Croppers are frequently found operating under the plantation system of management, the plantation be-ing divided into small tracts which are operated by tenants under very close supervision. A detailed study of plantations was made in connection with the census of 1910, and the distribution of tenants on plantations, as shown by that study, was similar to the distribution of croppers in 1920.

It is sometimes claimed that croppers ought not to be considered as tenants at all, but rather as hired hands receiving their payment in the form of a share of crops in place of a stated wage. While conditions hardly seem to justify this contention, it is interesting to note what would be the result of a reclassification in which croppers should be considered simply as hired hands. The percentage of tenancy in the South in 1920, including croppers, was 49.6; excluding the croppers both from the number of tenants and from the total number of farmers, the percentage would be 38.9. In the state of Georgia, which in 1920 showed the highest percentage of tenancy among all the states in the United States, the percentage would be reduced from 66.6 to 51.3 if the croppers were excluded. Even with the croppers excluded, however, several other Southern states, in addition to Georgia, would still have higher percentages of tenancy than any of the Northern states, among which Nebraska, with 42.9 per cent, and Illinois, with 42.7 per cent, show the highest proportion of tenants.

PER CENT DISTRIBUTION OF FARMS IN THE UNITED STATES, BY TENURE: 1880 TO 1920.

1920 1910

1900

1890 1880

PER CENT

10

20

30

40

50

60

.0

80

90

100

Value of farm property, by tenure: 1920 and 1910.Of the total value of farm property (including land, buildings, implements and machinery, and live stock) in 1920, a little over three-fifths (61.1 per cent) was reported for farms operated by owners; slightly more than one-third (34.9 per cent) for farms operated by tenants; and the remainder (4 per cent) for farms operated by hired managers. The distribution of the total value of farm property among the several tenure classes in the different parts of the country follows very closely the distribution of improved land in farms, by reason of the fact that the value of the improved land represents a very large part of the value of all farm property. In 1910 the value of the property reported for farm owners represented 65.1 per cent of the total and that reported for tenants only 30.8 per cent. The 1920 figures given above thus indicate a relative decrease for owners and an increase for tenants.