46 
BULLETIN 126&, L. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
harder to satisfy. What actually happened was a drain 
labor out of the plantation region, which left the plantation operators 
more than ever dependent upon the tenant classes. And since the 
tenant classes are recruited from wage laborers, there was finally a 
scarcity of tenant labor. This impression is strengthened by the 
result of an inquiry involving several hundred tenants in the western 
cotton States, which showed that plantations in 1918 and 1919 had 
operated with less tenant labor than in the preceding years, but that 
in 1920 the number of tenants on the same plantations had increased. 
In general, the principal cause of labor movements in the plantation 
areas is desire for a better economic situation, as has been explained. 
Although such movements and the consequent scarcity of plantation 
labor is always a matter of concern, yet the causes are usually beyond 
the control of an individual or the community at large. The minor 
movement, the shifting from farm to farm, the plantation operator 
is able to a certain degree to modify or control, as shown later. 
Period of occupancy of cropper and tenant farmers. — The extent of 
the shifting from farm to farm may be shown by the length of tenure 
of occupancy on the farm. Xinty-three selected plantation counties 
used as a basis for an estimate in 1920 indicated that about 17 in 
every 100 croppers and tenants had lived on the farms they occupied 
less than a year: about 43 less than 2 years: 33 from 2 to 4 years: 
and 13 from 5 to 9 years. (See Table 2, Appendix D, and fig. 11.) 
YYTien compared by tenure classes, croppers are found to be more 
unstable in occupancy than tenants. Of all croppers (97,578) in the 
selected counties in 1920, more than half (51.6) per cent had been on 
the farms then occupied less than two years, whereas, of all tenants 
(131,505), less than two-fifths (37.4 per cent) of them had occupied 
their farms continuously less than two years. About the same per- 
centages of these two classes (33.6 and 33.4 per cent for croppers and 
tenants, respectively) fall under the group heading of "2 to 4 years " 
(Table 2, Appendix D), but the percentages for tenants exceed those 
for croppers under the group headings of "5 to 9 years" and "10 
years or more," the combined percentages of the two periods being 
29.2 for the former and 14.8 for the latter. The unstable condition 
of occupancy for croppers, as compared with tenants, is due in part 
to the shifting of croppers into the wage status and vice versa, often 
even without changing farms. 
For comparison of the 93 selected counties with the United States 
as a whole in 1920, Table 14 is given. 
Table 14. — Comparison of occupancy data for tenants on plantations with the 
same classes in the United States as a whole. 
Continuous occupancy on the farm 
Areas 
Shun- tenants » 
■:. tenants •' 
1.. ss 
than 2 
years 
•J I.) 4 
years 
or more 
!.. SS 
than 2 
years 
2 to 4 
years 
.") years 
or more 
93 selected counties in 1920 
Per cent 
48.3 
46.7 
Pit C( nt 
33.5 
30.9 
Ptr c< nt 
lv 2 
22. i 
P t rctnt 
30.0 
34.3 
Percent 
3 
32.0 
Per cent 
United States 1 in 1920 
36. 2 
33. . 
including share and share-cash tenants and croppers. 
Including cash and standing renter-, and unspecified in items applying to the United states as a whole. 
