IO o ECONOMICS OF LAND TENURE IN GEORGIA [ 100 



being, his economic activity is apt to be defective. 

 Among the farmers of Georgia the economic wants vary: 

 as to intensity, from the weakest to the strongest ; as to 

 variety, from the simplest to the most complex; as to 

 beneficence, from the lowest to the highest and from the 

 most transient to the most abiding. It goes without 

 saying that not many of the farmers have wants charac- 

 terized by the highest degree of the qualities just men- 

 tioned. This, however, is not so unfortunate as the fact 

 that a very large percentage of them are satisfied with 

 only a modicum of economic goods. This is especially 

 true of the tenants in general and of the "cropping" 

 tenants in particular. 



An attempt will now be made to point out the short- 

 comings of the cropping system because of its inadequate 

 connection with strong economic motives. In the course 

 of the argument the promise made at the beginning of 

 this chapter will be more or less adequately fulfilled, that, 

 namely, of analyzing the workings of the several other 

 plans of farming found to exist in Georgia as well as the 

 cropping system. The reason for emphasizing the work- 

 ings of the cropping system, and of considering the 

 others only incidentally, will appear as the discussion 

 proceeds. 



It will be remembered that the cropping arrangement 

 arose out of an anomalous situation. Its original pur- 

 pose was to meet the needs of those without capital, and 

 so to relate those thus circumstanced to the crop as to 

 overcome their erratic disposition. Under this plan the 

 landlord nominally exercises control over the industry. 

 In practice, however, and for reasons that will be given, 

 the landlord does not exercise that degree of direct 

 supervision necessary for successful results. This leaves 

 the management in the precarious hands of those not 



