Table 3. --Estimated management returns per acre from flue-cured tobacco pre 

 duction In the Coastal Plains of North Carolina and the Piedmont area of 



Virginia, selected years, 1922-60 



[ Enterprise budgets 



Whole farm 

 budgets 



! North Carolina : Virginia 



Virginia 



: -Dollars 



1922— - -: — 8 



1925— : 5 



19 



5 

 113 



1936 : -- 9 



1947—..—. : 1/ 36 



1 QAfi-------. ----------- A"J lift 





1/ Estimates of management returns for 1934 and 1947 in North Carolina 

 were based on the conventional arrangement of one-third of returns to land- 

 owner and two-thirds of returns to tenants. Data were not available for de- 

 riving detailed budgets for tenant farms in these years for North Carolina. 



This analysis revealed that the return to land is much more affected by 

 changes in gross returns or costs than is the return to labor. Income to 

 land in Virginia was found to be more affected by these changes than was in- 

 come to land in North Carolina. Land returns become less sensitive to changes 

 in gross returns and costs as they increase; labor returns show practically 

 no sensitivity to these changes. 



EFFECTS OF TENURE ARRANGEMENTS ON THE DISTRIBUTION 

 OF BENEFITS OF FLUE -CURED TOBACCO PROGRAMS 



The major purpose of this section is to ascertain whether the almost com- 

 plete lack of change in the provisions of the share contracts between land- 

 owners and croppers or tenants over time has allowed labor to receive, as a 

 result of the flue-cured tobacco programs, returns in excess of its opportunity 

 returns. Whether the effect of tenure arrangements on the distribution of pro- 

 gram benefits is neutral, favorable to the sharecroppers or tenants, or favor- 

 able to landowners depends on the results of a comparison of (1) actual income 

 of tenants or sharecroppers with their alternative earnings, and (2) labor 

 supplied by tenants and sharecroppers with total labor used in flue-cured 

 tobacco production. 



Tenure arrangements which have a neutral effect on the distribution 

 of tobacco program benefits can be considered flexible according to the 

 concept of flexibility adopted for this study. Tenure arrangements are 

 flexible if there is no significant difference between trends in cropper 

 returns and trends in their opportunity returns, and between the proportion 



