79] THE SYSTEMS OF FARMING yg 



Unfortunately, however, their movements were made, for 

 the most part, in response to a political motive externally 

 suggested rather than in answer to a genuine economic 

 motive internally inspired. It was often the case when 

 wages were paid weekly or monthly that ,the laborers 

 made weekly or monthly changes of location. These 

 labor uncertainties tended to discredit the wages system 

 even in those cases where the planters were in position 

 to adopt it. Therefore, these three circumstances, namely, 

 the landlord's scarcity of capital, the negro's poverty, 

 and the negro's uneconomic mobility, combine to explain 

 the rise of the cropping arrangement now to be de- 

 scribed. 



The cropping system, as it is called in Georgia, is a 

 species of what economists call metayage. The essential 

 features of the system as developed in Georgia are these : 

 the landlord furnishes the land, house, live stock, farming 

 implements and seed ; * the cropper plants, works and 

 gathers the crop ; the crop is then divided equally be- 

 tween the landlord and the cropper; in case commercial 

 fertilizers are used, this expense is borne in common, as 

 is also the expense of ginning the cotton and wrapping 

 it for the market. This arrangement arose out of the 

 above outlined situation. It met the negro's lack of 

 capital and acted as a steadying influence upon his migra- 

 tory disposition. 



Another outgrowth of the whole situation and adjunct 

 to the system was the credit arrangement already de- 

 scribed. In view of the landlord's depleted resources, it 

 was necessary for him to negotiate for lines of credit on 

 the basis of which he might equip his farm with the 

 necessary stock and implements, and supply his croppers 



Sometimes the landlord furnishes only one-half of the seed. 



