THE PRESENT COTTON SYSTEM 175 



local merchants. The factorage business has recently suf- 

 fered heavy losses, but in 1922 from 5 to 10 per cent of 

 planters' advances were received from factors. From 40 

 to 80 per cent of these advances come from local banks. 

 From wholesale merchants may be secured from about 

 10 to 20 per cent of the credit needed. Wholesale grocery 

 companies operating in the Delta regions estimate that 

 about 50 to 90 per cent of their business is with planta- 

 tion commissaries. For croppers and share tenants the 

 one source of credit is the landlord. Usually the planter 

 gives the tenant a line of credit at the plantation sup- 

 ply store. The credit is based on the tenant's acreage 

 planted to cotton and is secured by a crop lien. Each 

 month the renter is allowed to draw part of this line of 

 credit. The time price is usually 10 to 25 per cent higher 

 than the cash price. In 1920 and 1921 the average amount 

 of credit furnished to 1,330 2 families of Negro cotton, 

 growers on plantations was $289 to croppers and $555 

 to tenants. These advances are used by all the planta- 

 tion labor regardless of the returns made from cotton. 

 "Cash money is for Christmas; furnishing is for livin'," 

 is the way one cropper phrased his attitude. The inabil- 

 ity of the cropper to finance himself, in or out of the 

 plantation system, is shown by his lack of capital. An 

 estimate 3 of the per capita net worth of persons engaged 

 in farming in the United States of January 1, 1920, as- 

 signed the following values : owner farmers, $13,476 ; part 

 owners, $12,829; tenants, $4,315; and croppers, $354. 

 The problem of financing the cotton grower outside 



2 Brannen, Dept. of Agriculture Bulletin 1269, p. 62. 

 3 L. C. Gray, "Accumulation of Wealth by Farmers," Proceed- 

 ings of American Economic Association, March, 1923. 



