83] THE SYSTEMS OF FARMING 83 



third of the grain and one-fourth of the cotton produced 

 on the land thus obtained. 1 It was natural therefore 

 that after the war the system should have been continued 

 and extended in so far as the conditions made such an 

 arrangement possible — that is to say, in so far as the 

 would-be tenant was in position to obtain stock and im- 

 plements with which to carry on his farming operations, 

 and in so far as the percentages represented the econ- 

 omic importance of the productive factors. 



The way is now prepared for an examination of the 

 extent to which the systems of share farming have 

 tended to prevail in the state. Unfortunately, no 

 statistics are available which would indicate the number 

 of farms included in the two categories separately con- 

 sidered. In the United States census reports the two 

 are grouped together as farms operated by share tenants. 

 The best that can be done, therefore, is to get from 

 these figures a view of the prevalence of the two com- 

 bined and then to interpret and supplement that view in 

 the light of personal observation and enquiry. The fol- 

 lowing table gives a general view of the wide prevalence 

 of share farming in Georgia. 2 



1880 1890 1900 



Total number of farms 138,625 171,071 224,266 



Number of farms operated by share 



tenants 43, 618 62,181 75, 810 



Percentage of farms operated by share 



tenants 31.5 36.4 33-7 



'The fact that more labor is required in the cultivation of cotton than 

 in the cultivation of corn and other grain accounts for the smaller per- 

 centage rent in the case of the former. This means that it takes less 

 labor to produce one hundred units of grain value than to produce one 

 hundred units of cotton value, or, to express the same thing in a differ- 

 ent way, more land is required to produce one hundred units of grain 

 value than to produce the same amount of cotton value. 



1 Abstract of the Twelfth Census, pp. 294, 295. 



