FARM OWNERSHIP AND TENANCY IN TEXAS. 



19 



THE CROPS GROWN. 



The average black-land farmer, regardless of his tenure, is a one- 

 crop farmer; for owners had about six-tenths, share tenants over 

 two-thirds, and share croppers almost four-fifths of all their crop 

 land in cotton. Moreover, approximately two-thirds of the total 

 area of the 368 farms was in cotton in 1919 (Table 11). 



Table 11. — Proportion of all farm land in crops, proportion of all crop land in 

 various crops, and operators classified by the per cent of all crop land planted 

 to cotton, by tenure classes for 368 operators. 



Pres?nt tenure status. 



Share croppers 



Share tenants 



Owners additional 

 Owner oeprators.. 

 All operators 



Per cent 



of all 



farm 



land in 



crops. 



Per cent of all crop land in- 



Cotton 



92.2 , 78.7 



91.3 67.1 

 85.7 | 56.1 

 85.9 ! 62.5 

 87. 6 66. 



Corn. 



Small 

 grain. 



13.4 

 12.9 

 12.1 

 16.0 

 13.6 



5.5 

 15.9 

 27.4 

 16.2 

 16.1 



Other 

 crops. 



2.4 

 4.1 

 4.4 

 5.3 

 4.3 



Per cent of all operators in each 

 tenure group whose per cent 

 of cotton acreage to all crop 

 acreage is— ■ 



90 per 

 cent 

 and 



above. 



52.3 

 1.6 



75 to 



j 

 50 to | 



90 per 



75 per 



.cent. 



cent. 



24.6 



20.0 



29.0 



59.6 1 



11.6 



57.8 



13.4 



64.6 



23.5 



53.6 



Below 

 50 per 

 cent. 



3.1 

 9.8 

 30.8 

 22.0 

 12.8 



The extent of the dependence that the black-land farmer places 

 in cotton is not adequately shown by these data. Corn is grown 

 primarily to feed live stock used in producing cotton, and in this 

 sense it practically becomes a cost in the production of cotton. Be- 

 cause this policy so largely governs the growing of corn, the per- 

 centage of corn to all crops varies but little with the different tenure 

 classes. 



Over half of all croppers have 90 per cent or more of their crop 

 area in cotton. And, while practically none of the operators in the 

 other tenure classes go to this extreme, only 15 per cent of them have 

 less than 50 per cent of their crops in cotton. 



In this connection it is well to note that the conservation of soil 

 fertility is rarely considered by operators in any of the tenure 

 classes. However, it will be seen that owners probably do more 

 to conserve -oil fertility than do tenants, for owners alternate grain 

 '•n.p- with cotton to a greater extent than do tenants. 



I-.K.NI CONTRACTS AND RELATION BETWEEN I.AM.OIil) AM) TENANT. 



Customary renting practice forms the basis for practically all 

 renting contracts. In fact, nearly all rent contracts arc nothing 

 more than an agreement between the Landlord and tenant that "cus- 

 tomary renting practices'' shall be followed. Such a contract, no 

 doubt, seems indefinite and broad in its interpretation, but customary 



