32 BULLETIN 1269, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Table 10. — Proportions of croppers and tenants on 161 cotton plantations, 1920 
Sections 
Total 
number 
of crop- 
pers and 
tenants 
Texas-Arkansas 
Louisiana (cotton) 
Mississippi Valley. „ 
Alabama.. 
Georgia 
North Carolina-South Carolina 
Total 
1,577 
344 
1,679 
1,309 
1,007 
554 
6,470 
Percentage of total 
Croppers Tenants 
41.7 
61.0 
46.3 
32.6 
72.8 
32.1 
58.3 
39.0 
53.7 
67.4 
27.2 
67.9 
53. 
The supervision is not the basis for distinguishing the cropper 
from the tenant. While croppers as a class are closely supervised, 
yet the difference in this respect is of little consequence on the 
plantation. The difference of supervision is one of degree, and the 
difference in degree is often slight. The proportions of croppers 
and tenants on 161 cotton plantations are shown, by sections, in 
Table 10; and for 93 plantation counties in Table 2, Appendix C. 
Reasons for the cropper system. — From the cropper's point of 
view, the cropper status is an advancement from the wage status. 
The wage laborer lacks capital for independent operation. He has 
no basis for credit for bujung equipment and meeting running 
expenses. He may lack experience as an independent operator. 
All these may be provided through the landowner and the cropper 
system. The cropper system arose on the plantation primarily 
because a certain class of agricultural workers needed operating 
capital and a certain degree of supervision in crop management; 
and so long as these two needs continue so long will the system 
persist. 
By the cropper system, the tenant may lower his nominal status 
by becoming a cropper, but he may thereby obtain the use of more 
desirable land and a better equipment of teams and tools, and, 
while his relative share of the crop is less by the arrangement, his 
ability to produce and the actual quantity of products obtained 
may be greatly increased. Therefore, contrary to the opinion 
sometimes held, the cropper system on the plantation is important, 
even from the laborer's point of view. It affords an opportunity 
for wage hands to gain experience and an accumulation of capital 
for independent operation, and saves tenants who lose their capital 
from having to become wage laborers. 
From the landlord's point of view, the use of cropper rather than 
wage labor may be a means of stabilizing the labor supply. The 
use of cropper rather than tenant labor affords the landowner a 
larger share of the crop. Moreover, plantation operators appreciate 1 
the importance of closely supervising the cultivating, harvesting, 
and marketing for the more inefficient workers, and their furnishing 
the equipment gives them a maximum authority in respect to it. 
It is also economical to provide the farm equipment and supplies 
by wholesale. 
TENANT LABOR. 
h is evidenl from the facts presented that tenant labor plays an 
important role on the plantation. The consistent increase of 
