102 ECONOMICS OF LAND TENURE IN GEORGIA [ IQ 2 



mental static law the system is doomed to utter ex- 

 tinction. 



Reference has already been made to the fact that these 

 credit percentages are being transferred from the mer- 

 chants to the landlords, as the latter are becoming able 

 to discount the accounts of their tenants at the stores of 

 the merchants. 1 The conditions which are making this 

 possible have also been adverted to. In so far as the 

 landlord's improved condition is due to the higher prices 

 received for cotton during the past five or six years, the 

 cropper's situation has also improved. Since he receives 

 one-half of the cotton raised the higher prices have been 

 a boon to him. These forces have contributed to lessen 

 the risks connected with making advances of supplies to 

 farmers so that the situation seems to warrant the state- 

 ment made by many supply merchants to the effect that 

 there are now less discrepancies than formerly between 

 the credit and cash prices of goods. To the extent that 

 this is true, the lot of the cropper is now more tolerable 

 than in the past. 



It is now in order to inquire why fundamental static 

 law working in a dynamic society will ultimately discard 

 the cropping system as it exists in Georgia to-day. 

 There are several reasons, each leading to the same gen- 

 eral conclusion, namely, that a larger return is obtainable 

 from some other combination of the productive forces. 



In the first place, the cropping plan is not elastic 

 enough for a dynamic society. Owing to the increase of 

 population, land is becoming more and more important 

 as a factor in production — a fact which posits a presump- 

 tion against the permanency of a fixed percentage plan 

 of distribution in agriculture. The working of the prin- 



1 Supra, p. 59. 



