UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



ji^*^L 



BULLETIN No. 1068 



Contribution from the Office of Farm Management 



and Farm Economics 



G. W. FORSTER, Acting Chief 



stt*^5u 



Washington, D. C. 



May 12, 1922 



FARM OWNERSHIP AND TENANCY IN THE BLACK 

 PRAIRIE OF TEXAS. 



By J. T. Sanders, Assistant Agricultural Economist. 

 (Division of Land Economies, L. C. Gray, Economist in Charge.) 



CONTENTS. 



Purpose and extent of investigation. 

 The development of tenure problems 



in the black land 



Economic aspects of the forms of 



tenure 



Page. 



15 



Agricultural history of farm opera- 

 tors 



Domestic, social, and educational 

 conditions in relation to tenure 



Page 



:,<_, 



PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF INVESTIGATION. 1 



The Black Land Prairie of Texas has long been regarded by stu- 

 dents of American tenure problems as a region of special interest. The 

 percentage of tenantry is high, and the development of the tenant 

 system has been unusually rapid. Since the region was but sparsely 

 settled at ihe close of the Civil War, and since there has never been 

 a high percentage of negro farm operators in the region — in 192G 

 but 15.9 per cent — tenancy in the Black Land is not attributable to 

 the historical reasons which serve to explain, in the main, the pre- 

 valence of tenancy in other sections of the South. However, the 

 one-crop system, with cotton as the basis, prevails here as elsewhere 

 in the South where there is also a high percentage of negro tenantry. 



The region is of special interest, furthermore, because of the social 



and political unrest arising from its tenure problems, which at times 



has been a major factor in politics in the State and attracted national 

 attention. Shortly after L900 tenure conditions gave rise to the pay- 

 ment of a bonus above the customary one-third grain and one fourth 

 cotton share rent— the share paid since early renting days in the 



'Acknowledgment for belpful cooperation In planning Acid work and collecting data In 

 given to Mr. <'. o. Brannen, of the Office ol Farm Management and Farm Econon 

 membera of *h<- (acuities <-f the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College and the Texan 

 st«t<- University for valuable suggestions aa t>> plana for n<'M work; and to Mis x| I 

 Herb, who assisted In the tabulation <•( the data, 

 90872 i"J 1 



