530 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



In Virginia, where there are many kinds of agricultural under- 

 takings in evidence but with no one crop by which a great 

 portion of the farm area can be exploited, and where ownership 

 is increasing, the value of owned land is above that of tenant 

 land by about 10 per cent. In Florida also the situation is 

 reversed, owing to the high values of fruit and truck farms, 

 which are mainly operated by owners. 



The above comparison is made by taking the owned and the 

 tenant land, with no regard as to the district in which it may 

 lie. Quite another viewpoint is gained by selecting a consider- 

 able area within which comparatively good land predominates, and 

 a similar area where cheap land predominates. Comparisons as 

 to tenure may then be tried. No results appreciably different, 

 however, are obtained. The conclusion is that the same forces 

 are at work whether the farms high in price are intermingled 

 with those low in price, or whether they are separated. In the 

 ten counties having the highest-priced land of Georgia the per- 

 centage of tenancy is 71.3 as compared to 65.6 per cent for 

 the state. In Texas the ten counties with land highest in price 

 show 63.3 per cent of tenancy as compared to 52.6 per cent 

 for the state. In North Carolina 50 per cent against 42.3. 

 The counties with the low prices of land are in nearly all cases 

 below the average in tenancy. The exceptions to this general 

 rule are, as appears elsewhere, the instances of special-crop 

 production, such as fruit, where the land is above the average 

 in value, but where tenants are relatively few. 



The relation of tenancy to the character of the crop grown 

 is close. Here as elsewhere the tenant grows mainly the 

 money crops which can be planted and harvested within a 

 single season. The most conspicuous of such crops in the 

 South is cotton, 60 per cent of which is grown by the tenants. 

 Tobacco is another crop popular among tenants, although they 

 produce only about their proportional share. The great contrast 

 between the farming done by tenants and that done by owners 

 is seen in the figures for live stock, the crops fed to live stock, 

 and in the value of buildings and machinery. The situation is 

 about the same throughout. The tenant grows much less than 



