9 i ] THE SYSTEMS OF FARMING g T 



The larger holdings, however, especially those containing 

 over 500 acres, have been split up into anywhere from 

 five to fifty farms worked by croppers and renters. 



More than sixty per cent of the proprietors cultivate 

 their own acres. 1 Most of these, at least in so far as re- 

 lates to the cotton belt, are relatively small landowners, 

 in whom inhere the combined functions of entrepreneur, 

 capitalist and laborer. 



There are other cases of ownership operation of farms 

 in which the landlord is entrepreneur and capitalist, but 

 hires the laborers employed on the farm, sometimes 

 supervising the work in person and sometimes employ- 

 ing a manager for this purpose. 2 



The highest percentages in the number of farms 

 worked by owners are found in the northern and south- 

 eastern counties of the state, that is to say, outside the 

 main cotton region in which are large percentages of 

 share- and cash-rented farms. 3 During the decade from 

 1890 to 1900 the high percentages of ownership-operated 

 farms in the northern and southeastern counties suffered 

 a decrease, and, as will be remembered, during the same 

 period in those two regions there was a noteworthy 

 increase in the number of share farms. It is fair to 

 infer, therefore, that large landowners in those compara- 

 tively undeveloped counties are inclined to try the crop- 

 ping system. 



As to the distribution of the ownership-operated farms 



x This estimate is based upon the fact that there are about 140,000 

 landowners in Georgia as determined from the tax digests and the 

 further fact that there are 90,000 farms operated by owners as shown in 

 the census. 



2 The merits of this plan in relation to present conditions in Georgia 

 are to be discussed in the closing chapter. 



8 See map in Appendix, infra. 



