FARM OWNERSHIP AXD 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. 
Present tenure status. 
Per cent 
of all 
farm 
land in 
crops. 
Per cent of all 
crop land in- 
Per cent of all operators in each 
tenure group whose per cent 
of cotton acreage to all crop 
acreage is — 
Cotton. 
Corn. 
■ 
Small 
grain. 
Other 
crops. 
above, t cent - 
50 to Below 
75 per 50 per 
cent. ! cent. 
! 
Share croppers 
92.2 
91.3 
&5.7 
85.9 
87.6- 
78.7 
67.1 
56.1 
62.5 
66.0 
13.4 
12.9 
12.1 
16.0 
13.6 
5.5 
15.9 
27.4 
16.2 
16.1 
2.4 
4.1 
4.4 
5.3 
4.3 
52.3 24.6 
1.6 29.0 
11.6 
20.0 3.1 
Share tenants 
59. 6 9. 8 
Owners additional 
57.8 
64.6 
53.6 
30.8 
Owner oeprators 
'"io.T 
13.4 
23.5 
22.0 
All operators 
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 soil fertility than do tenants, for owners alternate grain 
crops with cotton to a greater extent than do tenants. 
RENT CONTRACTS AND RELATION BETWEEN LAN LORD AND TENANT. 
Customary renting practice forms the basis for practically all 
renting contracts. In fact, nearly all rent contracts are 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 
