FARM OWNERSHIP AND TENANCY IN TEXAS. 13 



must be disposed of within specified periods of time after posses- 

 sion is secured. 11 



The antibonus law, as has been noted, was the result of agitation 

 against the bonus system. 12 



-This law makes it illegal to contract for or collect a rent in excess 

 of the value of one-third of the grain and one-fourth of the cotton 

 raised on the land where the landlord furnishes only land and im- 

 provements, and a rent in excess of one-half of the crops where the 

 landlord furnishes land, improvements, and equipment. A tenant 

 who is charged a rent in excess of this can collect from the landlord 

 by legal proceedings double the amount of the rent, and, further- 

 more, the landlord loses his right to the landlord's prior lien. 



Strict enforcement of this law would, no doubt, have far-reaching 

 social effects in areas where the specified share rent yields a very low 

 return on the value of the land, since it would tend to keep land 

 values much lower than they would otherwise be. A legally pre- 

 scribed and unvarying rent must be justified on social and not on 

 economic grounds, for it does not provide for adjustment to meet 

 changes in economic conditions that affect the amount of rent that 

 equitably may be asked for the use of the land. 



The factors of production have been classified as land, equipment, 

 and lahor — the human element of labor and management. 13 In the 

 black land the landlord furnishes only land, when renting his land 

 on a one-third and one-fourth share basis, and the tenant furnishes 

 the other two factors. The reward to land is rent, and the reward to 

 the other factors is usually spoken of as interest on equipment and 

 capital and labor income. 



Variations in the values of the landlord's and tenant's respective 

 contributions toward the operation of the farm would of necessity 

 vary the share of the rewards that should go to either party. Con- 

 sequently, such variations have a vital bearing on the problems of 

 the determination of an equitable rent. 



The total capital used on the average farm has varied consider- 

 ably since L860, but practically all of the increase in total farm 

 value occurred during the past 20 years (see Table 8). The smallest 

 avf-nige total value was reached in 1880, at the end of the decline 



"See Complete Statutes of Texas, pp. 18-14 and 745. Aliens of countries which huvo 

 treaties with the United States providing for the rlghl or ownership In this country and 

 aliens of countries which allow ownership rights to citizens of the United siatoH arc 

 excepted from the provisions of thin law. 



••The extent to which the bonus system was practiced La not known, because the bonus 

 provision of the rent contract was usually kepi a secret and was verj unpopular with 

 rentert In general (see Univ. of Tex. Bui, No, 21, 1815, Chapter VI). However, i>.v 

 1910 state-wide attention was given to the subject, whirl, culminated In the organization 

 of the Renters' Union of America In 1911, The subject of rent and land problem 

 general became the main i ue for the gubernatorial campaign of L914, and the succe ful 

 candidate was elected main, ol bis advocacy of an antibonus law. 



■ Chapters ix, x, and xi of Taylor's "Agricultural Economic 



