256 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



tenants, and 74.44 by owners. This predominance of share 

 tenancy explains why references to tenancy in the literature 

 of the earlier decades related so generally to share tenancy. 

 Share tenancy had many forms and was common. Cash 

 tenancy was less common and was more simple and less varied 

 in form, hence cash tenancy was discussed less than share 

 tenancy. 



The decade following the census of 1880 brought an increase 

 of a half million in the number of farms. The increase in tenant 

 farmers was more than proportionate, and the percentage of 

 share tenants rose to 18.41, that of cash tenants to 9.96, while 

 the percentage of owners fell to 71.63. In the decade from 1880 

 to 1890 share tenants increased in numbers in the new grain- 

 growing region of Minnesota, the Dakotas, Nebraska, and 

 Kansas. There was a marked increase in the number of share 

 tenants in the cotton regions of Texas, Mississippi, and Georgia. 

 Cash tenants increased markedly in the cotton region of South 

 Carolina, Alabama, and the alluvial of the Mississippi. 



The next ten-year period brought an increase of more than a 

 million in the number of farms, but in spite of the increase in 

 farms, the percentage of tenancy increased more rapidly than 

 in the preceding decade. In 1900 share tenants constituted 

 22.2 per cent, cash tenants 13.1 per cent, leaving 64.7 per 

 cent representing farms operated by owners or part owners 

 directly or through hired managers. It will be noted that cash 

 tenants increased at a more rapid rate than share tenants. 

 This was especially true in those cotton states where negroes pre- 

 dominated. In Texas where cotton is grown largely by white 

 farmers there was an increase from 33.1 to 42.4 in the percentage 

 of share tenants and a decline from 8.8 to 7.3 in the percentage 

 of cash tenants. In South Carolina the percentage of cash 

 tenancy increased from 27.75 m 1890 t 36.7 in 1900, while the 

 percentage of share tenancy decreased from 27.5 to 24.3. But 

 the more rapid increase in cash tenancy was not confined 

 entirely to the South. In Iowa the percentage of cash tenants 

 increased from 12.35 m I ^9 to 19.5 in 1900, the percentage 

 of share tenancy declined from 15.7 to 15.4 in the same period. 



