10 BULLETIN 1034, U.-S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
season as day laborers for chopping, hoeing, etc., and during the 
cotton-picking season as contract laborers. 7 
The share croppers also live on the farms, but they assume responsi- 
bility for all the labor on the crops they grow. As pay for the labor 
they usually receive one-half of the crops, less one-half the expense 
for fertilizer and ginning, while the operator furnishes all capital, 
pays all expenses other than those paid by the cropper, and has full 
supervision of the business. Because the share cropper furnishes 
little but labor he bears a close relation to the wage hand, the only 
difference being that he receives a share of the crops for his services 
instead of cash wages. In this study the value of the croppers’ share 
of crops, less the expense paid by the croppers, has been counted as a 
labor expense to the farm operator. This was found the more feasible 
method because the farm operator’s own labor, his buildings, equip- 
ment, mules, and cash outlay are for the production of both wage 
and cropper crops. Included in this study were 17 plantations in 1913 
and 14 in 1918 which were operated by managers hired to assume 
entire management and direction of the farm operations, instead of 
the owners. These farms were larger than. the average; 12 of them 
in 1913 and 10 in 1918 had over 450 acres of tilled land. The man- 
agers of these farms were considered in place of the owners, thereby 
making the farms comparable with others of similar size. 
SIZE OF FARMS. 
The white farmers, as a rule, operated the large farms. (See Table 
1.) One out of every five had over 250 acres of tilled land, as against 
one in 50 of the colored farmers. More than one-half of the white 
farmers, but less than one-fourth of the colored farmers, had over 
100 acres of crops. More than one-half of the owners, but less than 
one-fourth of the tenants, had over 100 acres of crops. 
TABLE 1—WSize of farms operated by white and colored owners and tenants, 
Sumter County, Ga., 1913-19184 
Number of farms under each size-group. 
Year. [50 tilled] 51to | 101 to | 151to | 251to | Over fale 
acres 100 150 250 450 450 SS: 
or tilled | tilled | tilled | tilled | tilled 
under. acres. acres. acres. acres. acres. 
Wihiteowners.. 2-527 Se eee cere 1913 36 64 56 47 30 35 268 
1918 37 83 43 50 32 35 280 
Wihite-tenantse2s- 22 ee ss cae ke lf 1913 17 17 10 3 2. | $e2 Se 49 
1918 10 23 12 6 Ge) ees 56 
Colored/OWneIs2o) 32 tee. pee sonson = 1913 3 13 6 5 3 1 31 
1918 9 20 ti 9 2 1 48 
Colored*tenants) + . 22s ee sae 1913 96 68 18 4f|. Bibs eo ek 186 
1918 62 69 26 8 A i ee 166 
eae eRe NN a nl a a) eee 
1 Since the farms in this area show a wide range in size and a wide variation in the proportion of the total 
area in woodland and crop land, the number of acres of tilled land was found a better measure of the size 
of business than that of the total farm area. In all tables in this bulletin where the farms are grouped by 
size the acres of tilled land are used as the basis. 
