5 26 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



little equipment and receive half, or less, of the crop ; above this 

 comes the group whose independence is measured by the pos- 

 session of a mule and a plow and the means of subsistence till 

 harvest time ; the highest class consists of those who can be 

 trusted to deliver a certain quantity of crop or possibly a sum of 

 money, and who are by that fact emancipated in the main from 

 the directing authority of the landlord. 



The percentages of tenancy for each of the sixteen Southern 

 States for the past four census dates are shown in the table : 



PER CENT OF TENANCY, 1880-1910 



It will be noticed that there has been for the thirty-year period 

 an increase in tenancy in all but four states, Delaware, Mary- 

 land, Virginia, and Florida. Likewise in Kentucky and Tennessee 

 there has been no pronounced increase in the proportion of tenancy 

 during the period. During the past decade there has been in the 

 four states furthest north (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West 

 Virginia) a decided decrease in the proportion of tenancy. These 

 four states thus have come to be in a class with the North Atlantic 

 states, so far as changes in this regard are concerned. As in the 

 North Atlantic states, the character of the farming is miscellane- 

 ous ; there are many fruit and vegetable farms ; the land is not 



