V 



80 ECONOMICS OF LAND TENURE IN GEORGIA [8a 



with the necessary provisions. Sometimes these advances 

 were secured from cotton factors, especially by those 

 planters in the neighborhood of cities like Augusta and 

 Savannah. By far the more important body of these 

 credits soon came to be obtained from local merchants 

 throughout the cotton belt of the state. It was, there- 

 fore upon the basis of the landlord's security that the 

 croppers obtained such necessaries as food and clothing 

 from the neighboring village merchant. 



Before proceeding to point out the extent to which 

 the cropping system has tended to prevail, it will be 

 helpful to describe another plan of share distribution also 

 practiced in the state, and to indicate the marks which 

 serve to distinguish the one from the other. Reference 

 is made to the " third and fourth " system, so called from 

 the fact that the renter pays the landlord one-third of the 

 grain and one-fourth of the cotton grown on the land 

 which the latter supplies. In this tenure the landlord 

 supplies only the land and house, while the tenant furn- 

 ishes all other forms of capital as well as the labor 

 required in the production of the crop. Moreover, the 

 landlord is supposed to exercise far less supervision in the 

 case of the " third and fourth " renter than in the case of 

 the cropper. 



It thus appears that the landlord in the cropping 

 system is the chief manager and exclusive capitalist, and 

 the cropper is, for the most part, only a laborer ; whereas 

 in the " third and fourth " plan the tenant is chief man- 

 ager and capitalist, and the landlord is capitalist directly 

 only to the extent of the value of the land supplied the 

 tenant. 



This distinction seems to underlie an opinion of the 

 state supreme court rendered as early as 1872. The 

 court said : 



