FORMS OF LAND TENURE IN THE UNITED STATES 299 



and harvest the crop. The cotton cropper receives one-half 

 the value of his crops and free house rent and garden as pay for 

 his efforts. In many of the cotton regions the cropper is not 

 an independent operator. This is especially the case on the 

 rich cotton lands where the plantation is the effective means of 

 organizing and controlling a class of tenants who are differ- 

 entiated from wage hands principally by the fact that they 

 receive a share of the crop instead of a fixed wage. The system 

 of control on a typical cotton plantation in the Yazoo delta of 

 Mississippi has been described as follows : l 



"While there are some small holdings, a large proportion of the 

 land is cultivated under a plantation system, white overseers manage 

 the plantation and direct the cultivation from seedtime until the 

 cotton is ready for market. The plantations are cut up into tracts 

 varying somewhat in size, but usually from eighteen to forty acres 

 in extent ; on each tract is a cabin of two or four rooms and a ' lean-to ' ; 

 at a little distance is a cotton house for storing seed cotton during 

 the picking season. Around or back of each cabin is usually a patch 

 of ground, perhaps half an acre, for a garden, often inclosed by a 

 paling fence, which serves as firewood in the winter season. Each 

 house is occupied by one or two families, who cultivate the allotted 

 land about the house, either as renters or croppers. 



"The cropper works like any wage laborer; and the daily routine 

 has a distinct flavor of the ante-bellum plantation regime. The bell 

 is rung at daylight during the cultivating season, the negroes gather 

 at the lot where the mules of the plantation have been penned and 

 fed during the night ; each one receives his mule from the caretaker, 

 and if he needs a new implement he gets it from the implement store- 

 house upon order from the manager ; he brings it back when he has 

 finished using it. Each man works with his family in his own lot ; 

 the overseer endeavors to visit each lot twice a day to see that the 

 cropper is working and to direct him in his work, set his tasks, and 

 instruct him in their performance. At noon, the bell rings again, 

 the mules are brought in, fed by a man in charge, and taken out 

 after the nooning is over. At sunset, or a little later, the plantation 

 bell rings again, the negroes stop work, and the mules are brought 

 to the common lot to be fed and shut up for the night. From first 

 to last every bit of work is supervised, the culture planned, the 

 1 In unpublished manuscript prepared by A. E. Conce. 



