6 
BULLETIN 1269, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
in plantations using croppers or tenants. In other words, the plan- 
tation system is dominant in only 14 of the 325 counties, from the 
standpoint of acreage involved. Ten of these counties lie in the 
territory contiguous to the Mississippi River, which had an average 
of 53 per cent of then land improved. 
The extent of the larger-sized plantations is shown for some of the 
States in Figure 3. 
Reference thus far has been made to plantations employing crop- 
pers and tenants primarily. A considerable number, however, are 
still operated primarily or wholly with cash-wage hands. It is esti- 
mated, from census data (See Table 2 and Appendix A), that in 1909 
there were about 5,300 such plantations using an average amount 
of wage labor equivalent to 10 croppers or tenants. 
Table 2. — Farms reporting expenditures of $1,000 or more for wage labor 
[Revised from Census Bulletin, Plantation Farming in the United Slates, 1916, Reference Table 291 
State 
Farms 
Farms 
report- 
ing 
Average 
amount 
expended 
per farm 
State 
Farms 
Farms 
report- 
ing 
. Average 
amount 
expended 
per farm 
Number 
1,438 
926 
1,661 
1, 543 
1,034 
671 
685 
Per cent 
1.70 
.95 
2.39 
1.36 
4.89 
.80 
1.04 
Dollars 
2, 385 i 
2. 037 
2. 200 
2, 107 
2, 719 
2, 203 
3,048 
Louisiana. . 
Number 
2,230 
2,985 
783 
628 
Per cent 
7.03 
1.86 
1. 11 
.71 
Dollars 
5,843 
Texas. 
2,533 
2. 528 
Tennessee 
2. 010 
Florida 
Total 
14, 5S4 
1.64 1 2,910 
These wage-labor plantations had approximately 1.500.000 im- 
proved acres. If it be assumed that the average value of improved 
land per plantation was the same as in the case of the plantations 
using croppers and tenants, it would appear that the plantations 
operated by wage labor included improved land amounting in value 
to 8100,000,000. This, combined with the acreage and value of the 
other plantations, shows the extent of plantations in the South to 
exceed 11,000,000 improved acres with a total value of more than 
s500,000,b00. These data, in addition to indicating the present 
extent of the plantation system, clearly demonstrate the tendency 
since reconstruction days for the system of tenure on the plantation 
to change from wage labor to tenancy, either nominal or otherwise. 
Whether the plantation system is increasing or declining in im- 
portance has not been determined. In the first place, no statistical 
information is available on the subject. In the second place, there are 
no fixed standards whereby the extent of the plantation system may 
be measured. The actual acreage in large-scale farming, owing to 
the extension of established areas by drainage, by clearing and levee 
improvement, by farming certain grazing lands, and by the consoli- 
dation of smaller farms, doubtless increased during the past decade. 
Such expansions usually occur during periods of prosperity— as, for 
example, in the cotton and rice belts in 1919- whereas the opposite 
tendency prevails during periods of depression. 
While the plantation area lias increased, the area operated under 
small-scale farming methods, both by owners and tenants, has 
increased even more. The plantation system, therefore, is relatively 
