FARM OWNERSHIP AND TENANCY IN TEXAS. 5 
Of the 368 farms surveyed in this study, 70.4 per cent were oper- 
ated by tenants. Including the land rented by owners who rented 
additional land {owners additional), 68.5 per cent of the land oper- 
ated by all of these farmers was rented land, the value of which was 
63.7 per cent of the total value of all land and buildings. 
In comparison with most other sections of the country the growth 
of tenancy in the black land has been very rapid. Since 1880 the 
total percentage increase in tenantry for the black land has been 24.3 
per cent, for the State of Texas 15.7 per cent, and for the United 
States 12.5 per cent. 
Table 1. — Increase in number of farms operated by tenants and owners in the 
black land, as compared with the State and the United States, by decades, 
since 1880} 
Census year. 
1890. 
1900. 
1910. 
1920. 
Total number of 
farms in black land 
operated by- 
Owners 
and ! Tenants, 
managers. 
26, 703 
29, 005 
35, 871 
33,018 
31, 924 
Per cent of all farms operated 
by tenants. 
In black 
land. 
19, 155 
31,805 I 
57,270 
60,704 i 
62,245 ! 
41.8 
52.3 
61.5 
64.8 
66.1 
In State 
of Texas. 
37.6 
41.9 
49.7 
52.6 
53.3 
In the 
United 
States. 
25.6 
28.4 
35.3 
37.0 
38.1 
1 Computed from TJ. S. Census publications. 
Evidently, therefore, conditions in the black land have been more 
conducive to a rapid increase in tenantry than in other sections 
of the country, and it is the discussion of this growth, its causes, and 
its effects, that has aroused nation-wide interest in the land problem 
of this area. 
UTILIZATION OF LAND IN RELATION TO TENURE. 
Agricultural development had scarcely begun in the black land 
by 1860, as is noted from Table 2. At that time the number of 
farm operators in the black land was only 7.5 per cent of the 
number in 1920; and only 4.3 per cent of the total area in the 19 
counties was then in improved farm land, as compared with 51.1 
per cent in 1920. 
The great increase in the number of farmers has been taken care 
of mainly by a corresponding increase in improved land rather than 
by an increase in total land in farms. The number of farms in 
1920 was 13.4 times as many as the number in 1860, but the total 
acreage in farms was only 2.2 times as much in 1920 as in 1860. 
The total improved acreage in farms, however, in 1920 was 14.1 
times the amount of all improved land in 1860 — a relative expansion 
