272 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 

 THE FARM OWNER 



The rise from share tenancy to land ownership is best 

 accomplished where industry and application on the part 

 of the tenant is met by an attitude of helpfulness on the 

 part of the landlord. This attitude often exists in in- 

 stances of cordial personal relations between tenants 

 and landlords: 



Now I am a plain farmer and own a four-horse farm my- 

 self and work three families of tenants on my place, and I 

 had rather help each one of my tenants to own that part of 

 the farm that he works than to have to use them as tenants 

 all of my life ... if there was any way opened up to them 

 for the help that would enable them to purchase. 12 



The way to land ownership in the Cotton Belt for the 

 tenant is hard and difficult. If landlords are cooperative, 

 the rise to ownership may be blocked by vicissitudes of 

 fortune or the lack of indefinable but necessary personal 

 qualities. 



The writer, a landlord in Upson County, Georgia, soon 

 after the Negroes were freed undertook to aid many of his 

 old family Negroes with disastrous results in all except one 

 case. Will mention one case of late occurrence to illustrate. 

 Fourteen years ago I bought a farm of 120 acres and a fine 

 mule and wagon and other items of supplies for one of my 

 favorite Negroes, and sold them to him for what they all 

 cost me. During that long time he has only paid the cost 

 of the mule and the wagon and last year permitted the land 

 to be sold for taxes. 13 



12 Letter from F. A. Marsh, R. F. D. No. 8, Fayetteville, N. C., 

 to Raleigh News and Observer, Oct. 1921. 



"Given in R. P. Brooks, The Agrarian Revolution in Georgia, 

 p. 61. 



