LAND TENURE AND PLANTATION ORGANIZATION 41 
is used in either of these combinations, it is provided by the land- 
lord. Where the rent is more than half, landlord and tenant usually 
share the costs in preparation of the product for market. Where 
only the land is rented, the tenant frequently makes all necessary 
improvements on the farm, such as buildings, fences, and levees, 
which are usually purchased from the tenant at the expiration of 
the lease contract, or removed from the land by the tenant. 
Details of a typical contract are as follows: "The landlord 
furnishes land, half the seed, pumping plant and fuel, half the twine 
and sacks, half the machine costs of harvest, and the materials for 
fences and repairs, and receives half of the crop." The tenant in 
this case furnishes the remaining half of the items enumerated and 
the labor, operation and repairs of pumping plant, construction of 
levees and canals and their upkeep and improvement, and the 
delivery of the landlord's share at the railway station. Instances 
were noted where the landlord contributed land, buildings, teams, 
machinery, threshing, feed for work stock, twine, and fuel for tractors, 
and received three-fourths of the crop. Water rent, when provided 
by the landlord or by an outside company, usually costs the tenant 
one-fifth share of the crop. Water is also supplied for cash, the 
rate ranging from $10 to $16 per acre in different localities. The 
share of the crop for water, however, is usually considered more 
satisfactory because by this method the risk is shared by both parties. 
In all the plantation region, the landlord usually makes all improve- 
ments on the farm and keeps such improvements in repair, except 
that the tenant is required to keep lateral ditches clean on his indi- 
vidual tract. The landlord has an equal obligation in keeping the 
main ditches clean. In a few cases the tenant is required to furnish 
the labor in making minor repairs of fences and the like. 
The crop is delivered at the place designated by the landlord, 
usually at the gin in the case of cotton, at the railway or on the boat 
in the case of sugar cane, at the thresher or shipping point in the case 
of rice, or at the local market in the case of tobacco. The importance 
of this consideration varies with the distance of the plantation from the 
gin or refinery, or from the local market or shipping point. The 
landlord usually retains the privilege, as a safeguard against improper 
cultivation, to provide extra labor for the tenant in case of need, the 
expense to be charged to the tenant's account. 
Practically all tenants on the plantation, regardless of tenure class, 
are permitted to have garden and truck patches and to keep a limited 
number of livestock with free pasturage. The keeping of livestock, 
however, is not always encouraged. 
Cropper and tenant contracts on plantations frequently consist of 
informal understandings of working relations. This is particularly 
true in the case of croppers. Only 12 of 83 plantations reporting the 
use of croppers had written contracts in 1920; and only 36 of 70 using 
tenants of all kinds had written contracts. 38 The written contract 
is to be commended, not for its binding effect, but because it forms a 
3 g The written contract is sometimes a mere formal " signing up " as popularly referred to. This document 
in one instance consisted of the following language: "I agree to work with (landlord) on the half 
system during the year on the (name of) plantation. I agree to work under the instruction of 
(manager) Signed X (his mark)." This is an extreme case. The contract used by most 
planters is a legal document setting forth the contributions and obligations of both landlord and tenant or 
cropper. . 
