EVOLUTION OF THE COTTON SYSTEM 71 



less than $1,000.00. The average value of the buildings 

 was $179 per tenant farm. Each plantation averaged 

 over ten tenant farms. 09 



Three types of plantations are discernible in the Cot- 

 ton Belt : the small plantation, managed by the landlord 

 who lives on it and directs to some extent the work ; the 

 large plantation, owned by a well-to-do capitalist or pos- 

 sibly a corporation and run by a managerial staff; and 

 the plantation bought as a speculation by one engaged 

 in another business who attempts to operate it as an 

 absentee landlord. 60 The management of a plantation 

 owned by a corporation is likely to be most efficient ; the 

 smaller plantation on which the landlord lives usually 

 possesses a well-developed social system as well as eco- 

 nomic organization. The plantation bought as a specula- 

 tive venture and owned by an absentee landlord is likely 

 to be least efficiently managed and to offer its tenants a 

 lower economic status. 



The system of management to be described is followed 

 in the main by all plantations but is best developed in 

 those owned by larger corporations. The owner or general 

 manager has the difficult task of supervision. It is the own- 

 er's task to look after the financing of the plantation by 

 keeping up connections with credit institutions, to look 

 after purchasing supplies, marketing products, and with 

 the aid of a bookkeeper to oversee the accounts of all 

 the different tenants. The man next in authority is called 

 the farm manager. The successor to the ante bellum over- 

 seer has risen in intelligence, social status, and managerial 

 ability. He directs the planting and cultivating of crops 



59 1910 Census, V, 881. 



00 Goldberger, Pellagra in the Mississippi Flood Area, Public 

 Health Reprint 1187, pp. 10-11. 



