254 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



Mobility, low standards of living, attempts to rise in 

 tenure, and reverses characterize the lives of many share 

 croppers. The following is the case of a white cropper 

 from Texas : 



A share cropper began for himself 24 years ago in Ten- 

 nessee, and farmed in that state ten years as a cropper, 

 moving five times. He has moved eight times and has had 

 four reverses in tenure during the 14 years he has been in 

 the Texas Black Lands. He attained the share tenancy stage 

 and remained in it for one year only. 



Eleven people, including a married son and his wife, live 

 in a house of four rooms. The cropper has lost an average 

 of four dollars a year since he began farming 24 years ago. 2 



The following white cropper, age 53, from the Coastal 

 Plains of Georgia tells his own story. In 1913 he had 

 moved eleven times in twenty years and had lost on an 

 average $9.09 each year he farmed. His change of farms 

 was the result of lack of success with each landlord. Suc- 

 cess has come to be reckoned in terms of "corn, bacon, 

 and money." 



I have been a share cropper and shared with different 

 landlords. I have six children living with me, two others 

 grown and left me; one a renter and one a share cropper. 



The first landlord I was with two years and left him 

 with a little corn and bacon. No money. 



Was with second landlord two years, and left with 50 

 bushels of corn and 300 pounds of bacon. No money. 



The third landlord I was with three years and left with 

 50 bushels of corn and 500 pounds of bacon. No money. 



Fifth landlord had me three years. Left with 75 bushels 

 of corn and 500 pounds of bacon. No money. 



2 Dept. of Agriculture Bulletin 1068, p. 62. 



