BULLETIN 1068, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
State. The bonus system aroused violent antagonism among renters, 
culminating in the organization of the Renters' Union of America 
in 1911. By 1914 the situation had become so acute that the United 
States Industrial Relations Commission held investigations on the 
land problem in the region, and the bonus problem became the main 
issue of the Texas gubernatorial campaign of that year, resulting in 
the election of the candidate advocating an antibonus law. This 
law, discussed more 
fully later, was passed 
the year following the 
campaign. It is an 
interesting and unpre- 
cedented experiment 
in land legislation in 
this country. 
There are four dis- 
tricts in Texas known 
locally as " black land 
prairies." The area 
covered in this study 
comprises 19 coun- 
ties 2 lying wholly or 
in large part in the 
main Black Land 
P r a i r i e — sometimes 
known as the " Black 
AYaxyBelt." (Fig.l.) 
These 19 counties, 
designated through- 
out this bulletin as 
the black land, are 
similar in a gricul- 
tural, economic, and 
social conditions. 3 
The study is based 
mainly on data taken 
in 6 representative counties 4 from 368 farm operators, particular 
pains being taken to avoid any selection of the men to be interviewed, 
2 These counties are Bell, Collin, Dallas, Delta, Ellis, Falls, Fannin, Grayson, Hill, 
Hunt, Kaufman, Lamar, Limestone, McLennan, Milam, Navarro, Rockwall, Travis, and 
Williamson. 
■ The portion of the Black Land Prairie lying southwest of Travis County is not in- 
cluded in the study because its system of agriculture and economic and social conditions 
are different from those in the 19 counties included in the study. 
* Dallas, Ellis, Hill, McLennan, Bell, and Williamson ; also a few schedules were taken 
in Johnson and Navarro Counties. (See map, Fig. 1.) 
F ig. 1. — Map of black land prairies of Texas, showing loca- 
tions where data were taken for this study. 
