24 CIBCULAK 10 0, U. S. DEPAKTMeKT op agricultttke 



CONDITIONS OF FARM POPULATION IN THE TRI-STATE AREA 



An appreciation of some of the more intangible aspects of the 

 problem is essential to a full understanding of all of the causes of 

 the failure of the Tobacco Growers' Cooperative Association and of 

 the difficulties in the way to the successful cooperative marketing of 

 tobacco or other products in Virginia, North Carolina, and South 

 Carolina. There are conditions in the tri-State area which undoubt- 

 edly contributed to the failure of the organization through affecting 

 the membership attitudes. 



The small size of many farms in these three States and the small 

 acreage in crops tend to give their owners low incomes. Over half 

 of the farms have less than 50 acres, and over three-fourths have less 

 than 100 acres. Because of the nature of the soil, topography, and 

 the lack of cleared land much of the land in farms is not crop land. 

 According to the 1925 Census of Agriculture (10, pt. #, County 

 Tables IV) only two-fifths of the total land in farms in eight of the 

 more important tobacco-producing counties in the three States was 

 crop land. 8 For the same counties 6.9 per cent of the total land in 

 farms and 16.9 per cent of crop land was in tobacco. 



The presence of both large and small farmers creates a condition 

 which hinders the development of a real cooperative spirit. The 

 large farmer and the land-owning farmer often have other sources 

 of income, such as interests in warehouses, stores, fertilizer plants, 

 and sawmills. This makes them less dependent upon their income 

 from tobacco than are the small farmers, who may be totally depend- 

 ent upon a few cash crops for their income. Although the more 

 independent farmer with several sources of income should be the bet- 

 ter cooperator because of his ability to live up to a marketing agree- 

 ment better, there is often less need and desire on his part for him to 

 join an association. As a result, these large growers, unless public 

 spirited, may hesitate or refuse to join a cooperative-marketing en- 

 terprise, and because of the large volume of the product which they 

 control they may influence greatly the portion of that product that 

 will be sold through the association. 



Some of the large and influential landowners personally attended 

 to the cultivation of only a small portion of their estates, some gave 

 no attention, and comparatively few of them live on the farms. 

 Some of those who have remained on their estates personally control 

 and supervise the operations of their tenants and work only a small 

 portion themselves. During the last generation the social, educa- 

 tional, and economic advantages to be found in the towns and cities 

 have caused a migration of many of these landowners and their chil- 

 dren to the city, giving rise to absentee landlordism and to some of 

 the evils thereof. These landlords exercise only a loose supervision 

 over their estates, having lost their interest in farming, and have 

 become more or less out of sympathy with the tenants. 



This absentee landlordism was increased during and after the 

 World War by the acquisition of bankrupt estates by business and 

 professional men, such as bankers, doctors, lawyers, and business men, 

 who maintain only an imperfect and loose contact with the tenants. 



8 Pittsylvania and Halifax Counties, Va. ; Stokes, Granville, Pitt, and Greene Counties, 

 N. C. ; and Darlington and Florence Counties, S. C. 



