FARM OWNERSHIP AND TENANCY IN UNITED STATES 257 



In the South regions of cash tenancy are more generally 

 regions of negro tenants. In the Black Prairie of Texas, where 

 share tenants are very numerous, negro tenants are scarce 

 and white tenants are present in great numbers. In the Yazoo- 

 Mississippi delta, where with the exception of two counties cash 

 tenancy prevails, negroes constitute almost the whole tenantry. 

 The same is true of the Black Prairie of Alabama and eastern 

 Mississippi. In Georgia and South Carolina negro tenants 

 and cash tenancy are associated together while farther to the 

 north and northwest, in these two states, where share tenancy 

 prevails, the negro tenant is not common, while white tenants 

 are found in abundance. 



It should be borne in mind that the cash rent of the Cotton 

 Belt is not necessarily a fixed amount of money. It is very 

 commonly a fixed amount of cotton. Furthermore it should not 

 be inferred that cash rent necessarily represents a higher form 

 of tenancy than share rent. These subjects will be discussed 

 in detail in later chapters on the methods of renting land. The 

 purpose here is to show the trend of affairs with regard to the 

 increase in tenancy. 



By comparing the figures one will be impressed with the 

 enormous increase in the number of tenants between 1880 and 

 1900. During this twenty-year period the total number of farms 

 increased 43 per cent, while the number of farms operated by 

 cash and share tenants increased 98 per cent. These questions 

 properly arise : Why should the percentage of tenancy increase 

 so rapidly during a period when so many new farms were becom- 

 ing available? Is it not true that these new farms have been 

 secured by taking up new lands at a low price which is conducive 

 to an increase in the ownership of land on the part of tenants ? 

 In answering these questions many facts need be taken into 

 account. It is true, when the United States is considered as a 

 whole, that the area in farms has increased more rapidly than 

 has the number of farms, so the average size of farms was 

 greater in 1900 than in 1880. The average size in 1880 was 

 133.7 acres, while in 1900 it was 146.6 acres. But when the 

 specific states are considered in which tenancy has been in- 



