LAND TENURE AND PLANTATION ORGANIZATION 43 
weekly distribution. This method is not considered advisable be- 
cause it is said to defeat the purpose for which it is used, that is, to 
avoid abuse of work stock. 
Implements for crop work are usually assigned for the period or 
season needed, after which they are returned to the pool for re- 
distribution. One wagon often accommodates from three to six 
croppers. Tenants frequently borrow the more expensive articles 
of farm machinery from the landlord. Teams and tools are 
sometimes rented by the year to tenants who want to rent instead of 
operate as croppers. The rate of such rent on cotton plantations 
varies from $25 to $40 a year per head for work stock and a less 
amount for implements. One unusual instance of this sort was 
noted on a sugar-cane plantation, where the landlord made it a 
practice to rent work stock to all plantation tenants. A so-called 
amortization plan was employed by which the tenant paid annual 
installments plus interest on the team based upon a 10-year amortiza- 
tion schedule. In the event the tenant moved at any time, the pay- 
ments were canceled as rent, and the tenant never actually gained 
ownership of the team, because it was presumed that the 10 years 
represented the life of a work animal on a sugar-cane plantation. 
The purpose of this plan was obviously to provide a permanent 
supply ol desirable work stock for plantation use. 
The assignment of farms to tenants is largely determined by the 
landlord. As a matter of general policy, it is customary for crop- 
pers to cultivate the land nearest to headquarters in order to facili- 
tate supervision and the handling of the landlord's work stock, and 
for renters, particularly the best and more reliable farmers, to operate 
the more remote fields. This practice may be modified to meet 
individual conditions. 
The manner of handling labor in field work has changed with 
tenure conditions. In the early part of the period following the 
Civil War, all field workers were organized in groups in charge of an 
overseer. The "gang" system is now employed only in exceptional 
cases, except for wage workers. On a few plantations, croppers are 
employed in groups until after the crops are planted, after which 
each cropper is assigned to a separate field. Tenants occasionally 
work together in pairs throughout the year, so as to have a double 
team of work stock and men and to keep each other company. 
This plan of joining forces is often required on sugar-cane planta- 
tions, even to the extent of four or five families, in order to control 
as large a labor force as possible during the harvest season. All such 
combinations facilitate supervision. But, as a rule, each cropper or 
tenant works separately. 
The farm manager makes his rounds daily on the closely super- 
vised plantation, giving instructions on the details of field work, 
which usually requires close and frequent inspection. 
Supervision of sugar-cane plantation tenants normally is not as 
close as that of cotton tenants. One example will show the usual 
attitude of the management, and at the same time reflect the charac- 
ter of tenants usually found on sugar-cane plantations: When the 
tenant comes for advances at the end of the week, the work is laid 
out for the following week, the carrying out of the details being left 
to the tenant. Such a plan seems commendable, as it gives to the 
tenant's problems the benefit of the judgment of both himself and the 
