]4 BULLETIN 4H2. V. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The colored tenants operate smaller farms than those of any other 

 tenure. Ninety-six. or more than one-half of them, had less than 

 50 acres of tilled land. Eighty-eight per cent of these tenants farmed 

 less thaii 100 acres and only 1 farms were found with over 150 acres 

 of tilled land. 



RELATION OF TENURE TO DISTRIBUTION OF INVESTMENT. 



In Table III is shown the distribution of the farm investment on 

 farms operated under different forms of tenure. Land, buildings, 

 live stock, machinery, feed and supplies, and cash represent the capital 

 invested in the farming business. 



The investment in land constitutes the greater part of the farm 

 capital. The second item of investment of importance is the build- 

 ings. On the owner farms the house occupied by the operator is 

 ordinarily a neat, well-built structure, but the tenants' houses are 

 usually small and in many cases cheaply constructed and not kept in 

 good repair. The cotton system of farming necessitates the support 

 of a great amount of labor by each farm, making the investment in 

 tenant houses a considerable item. The other farm buildings are 

 of comparatively cheap construction arid represent only a small 

 share of the total investment. Outside of the owners renting addi- 

 tional land, the investment in land and buildings constitutes over 80 

 per cent of the total farm capital. 



The item of investment third in importance in this area is that 

 of work stock, which consists mostfy of mules. This item's per- 

 centage of the total capital shows marked uniformity on both owner 

 and tenant farms. The live-stock enterprise in this area, outside of 

 the horses and mules necessary for farm work, is a very small item. 

 The investment in other live stock represents the value of cows, hogs, 

 and poultry, and is less than 2 per cent of the farm investment in 

 all but one class of tenure. With the exception of three or four 

 farms practically all the products from these three classes of live 

 stock are used on the farm. 



The investment in machinery represents only a small portion of 

 total capital, since comparatively few expensive labor-saving ma- 

 chines are used. A large percentage of the farms use one-horse 

 machinery in nearly all farm operations, which tends to bring the 

 machinery investment to the minimum per farm. The percentage 

 of investment in machinery runs more evenly on the white than on 

 the colored operator farms. Undoubtedly the large factor other 

 than that of type in limiting the use of labor-saving machinery here 

 is the fact that it can not compete with hand labor at the present 

 cost in this region. 1 



1 U. S. Dept. of Agr. Bulletin 33S, Machinery Costs of Farm Operations. 



