16 



BULLETIN 1068, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



additional, or (4) owner operators. 11 The term owner is used to in- 

 clude both owners additional and owner operators; and the term 

 tenant is used to include both share croppers and share tenants. 



Of the 368 farmers from whom data were taken, 192, or 52.2 per 

 cent, were share tenants ; 83, or 22.6 per cent, were owner operators ; 

 65, or 17.7 per cent, were share croppers ; 26, or 7 per cent, were owners 

 additional ; and 2, or 0.5 per cent, were cash tenants. 18 



SIZE AND VALUE OF FARMS OF DIFFERENT TENURE CLASSES. 



The average size of the farms varied considerably with each form 

 of tenure, as will be noted from Table 9. Share croppers, who had 

 the smallest farms, had exactly half as many acres on the average as 

 owner operators, who operated 118.2 acres each. Share tenants had 

 only 14 acres less on the average than owner operators, while owners 

 additional, who had the largest farms, operated 159.2 acres each. 



Table 9. — Average size and value of farms and the distribution of farm values 

 for the different tenure classes. 





Number 

 of oper- 

 ators. 



Average 



acres per 



farm. 



Average value per farm . 



Average value per 

 acre of— 



Present tenure class. 



Total 

 farm 

 value. 



Value of 

 land and 

 buildings. 



Value of 

 equip- 

 ment. 



Value of 

 buildings. 



Farm 



land 



without 



buildings. 



Equip- 

 ment. 



Share croppers 



Share tenants 



Owners additional 



Owner operators 



65 



i 194 



26 



83 



368 



59.1 

 104.2 

 159.2 

 118.2 

 103.3 



$10,945 

 19,162 

 26, 747 

 23,408 

 18,981 



$9, 841 

 16,489 

 22,995 

 19,078 

 16, 359 



$1,104 

 2, 675 

 3,752 

 3,330 

 2,622 



$703 

 1,144 

 2,061 

 2,215 

 1,374 



$155 

 148 

 132 

 143 

 145 



$19.00 

 26.00 

 24.00 

 28.00 

 25.40 







1 Includes two cash tenants. 



As a class, owner operators are better able than any other tenure 

 class to increase the size of their operated farms, for their average 

 net worth is more than twice that of owners additional and more 

 than eight times the average wealth of share tenants. The fact is 



17 Owner operators own all the land they operate. Owners additional own part and 

 rent part of the land they operate. STiare tenants rent all the land they operate and 

 furnish all labor and equipment used on their farms, and as a rule receive two-thirds of 

 the grain and three-fourths of the cotton raised. Share croppers rent all their land and 

 furnish only the labor used in operating their farms, the equipment, feed, repairs, etc., 

 being furnished by the landlord and the crops being shared equally. There are two> 

 distinct classes of croppers in the black land, these classes being known locally as half 

 renters and as half hands. The half renter usually gets all the land he can operate and 

 does little work for his landlord. The half hand is allowed only enough land to " hold "" 

 him during the year, the aim of the landlord being to use the half hand most of the time 

 working on his (the landlord's) farm. The cropper farm, therefore, is frequently a part 

 of a larger unit of farm organization and is discussed throughout this bulletin from the 

 tenure and operator viewpoint rather than from the organization viewpoint. 



18 These two cash tenants were included with the data on share tenants throughout the 

 bulletin. 



