2 BULLETIN 337, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
He is assured of a return of between 6 and 7 per cent on his invest- 
ment where the land 1s operated by cash renters, no matter what the 
vield or the tenant’s labor income may be. 
Where the land 1s worked by share croppers or share renters the 
landlord’s rate of interest often falls below 6 per cent, but when the 
yield is good and the tenant makes a good return, the rate of interest 
sometumes rises to more than three times that amount. 
It appears that the landlord can make better money, on the aver- 
age, when he rents his land on some system of shares. The average 
rate of interest received by the landlord from share croppers was 
13.6 per cent; from share renters, 11.8 per cent; and from cash 
renters, 6.6 per cent. 
The holaiaes of share croppers are considerably smaller, on the 
average, than those of share renters or of cash renters, and there are 
few share croppers having as much as 25 acres in cotton, while about 
one-third of the share renters and of the cash renters have at least 
that acreage. The labor income of tenants increases directly with 
the increase in cotton acreage, but the rate of interest on the land- — 
lord’s investment appears to be but little affected by the size of the 
holdings. 
The principal factor in determining the amount of the tenant’s 
labor income and the rate of the landlord’s profits in this region is 
the yield of cotton per acre. The relationship between yield of 
cotton and labor income, however, is much closer on cash renters’ 
farms than on those of share croppers, while the effect of yield on 
the landlord’s profits is more apparent under the share cropping 
than under the share renting or the cash renting system. The 
tenant’s incentive for securing a good crop is consequently greater 
among those who rent for cash, but, on the other hand, the landlord 
is more directly interested in the magnitude of the yield per acre on 
the land of his share croppers. 
TERRITORY STUDIED. 
The agriculture of the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta! is conducted largely 
on the plantation system. Under this system white owners let their 
holdings in small tracts among negro tenants, and are very largely 
guided in determining the number of acres assigned to each tenant, 
and in deciding on the terms of the contract, by the known character 
of the tenant, his reliability and his industry, and the size of his 
family. 
The problems of farm tenure in the Delta are not unlike those 
prevailing in other portions of the cotton belt, but are decidedly 
. The Yazco-Mississippi Delta includes the following nine counties in Mississippi: Bolivar, Coahoma, 
Tssaquena, Leflore, Quitman, Sharkey, Sunflower, Tunica, and Washington, and adjoining parts of Holmes, 
Tallahatchie, Warren, and Yazoo Counties. 
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