BULLETIN 1068, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



State. The bonus system aroused violent antagonism among renters, 

 culminating in the organization of the Eenters' Union of America 

 in 1911. By 1914 the situation had become so acute that the United 

 States Industrial Relations Commission held investigations on the 

 land problem in the region, and the bonus problem became the main 

 issue of the Texas gubernatorial campaign of that year, resulting in 

 the election of the candidate advocating an antibonus law. This 



law, discussed more 

 fully later, was passed 

 the year following the 

 campaign. It is an 

 interesting and unpre- 

 cedented experiment 

 in land legislation in 

 this country. 



There are four dis- 

 tricts in Texas known 

 locally as " black land 

 prairies." The area 

 covered in this study 

 comprises 19 coun- 

 ties 2 lying wholly or 

 in large part in the 

 main Black Land 

 P r a i r i e — sometimes 

 known as the " Black 

 Waxy Belt." (Fig.l.) 

 These 19 counties, 

 designated through- 

 out this bulletin as 

 the black land, are 

 similar in agricul- 

 tural, economic, and 

 social conditions. 3 



The study is based 

 mainly on data taken 

 in 6 representative counties 4 from 368 farm operators, particular 

 pains being taken to avoid any selection of the men to be interviewed, 



2 These counties are Bell, Collin, Dallas, Delta, Ellis, Falls, Fannin, Grayson, Hill, 

 Hunt, Kaufman, Lamar, Limestone, McLennan, Milam, Navarro, Rockwall, Travis, and 

 Williamson. 



* The portion of the Black Land Prairie lying southwest of Travis County is not in- 

 cluded in the study because its system of agriculture and economic and social conditions 

 are different from^those in the 19 counties included in the study. 



* Dallas, Ellis, Hill, McLennan, Bell, and Williamson ; also a few schedules were taken 

 in Johnson and Navarro Counties. (See map, Fig. 1.) 



F ig. 1. — Map of black land prairies of Texas, showing loca- 

 tions where data were taken for this study. 



