86 ECONOMICS OF LAND TENURE IN GEORGIA [86 



scribed 1 seems to warrant the conclusion that the crop- 

 ping system is already in process of gradual extinction. 



Another interesting phase of the matter is the relative 

 number of negroes and whites operating share farms. 

 The Twelfth Census is the first to give any information 

 on this subject. According to the returns there given 

 fifty-two per cent of the share farms were operated in 

 1900 by whites. 2 This showing seems to lead to the 

 conclusion that the negroes are about on a par with the 

 whites in so far as they are ill — or well — affected by the 

 circumstances associated with that system; for the negro 

 share tenants sustain about the same proportion to the 

 white share tenants as the total number of negroes sus- 

 tains to the total number of whites in the state. 



It should be noticed that the section in which the 

 negro share tenants outnumber the white share tenants 

 coincides generally with the cotton belt, which in turn 

 coincides with that section of the state in which the 

 negroes outnumber the whites. It so happens that the 

 section thus marked out is the very district which suf- 

 fered from 1890 to 1900 a decrease in the relative num- 

 ber of share tenants and is just south of the area within 

 which the share system had its greatest prevalence in 

 1900. It appears, therefore, that the share system is 

 losing ground in that part of the state where it was sup- 

 posed to be strongly entrenched, namely, in the negro 

 and cotton belt. 



The rapid decay of the " third and fourth " system and 

 the apparent beginning of a relative decline of the crop- 

 ping system, raise the question as to what tendencies are 

 ': to be found at work among the other forms of land ten- 

 ure. Aside from the farms worked by owners there ex- 



1 Cf. chapter vi. 2 Twelfth Census, vol. v, p. 69. 



