LAND TENURE AND PLANTATION ORGANIZATION 
55 
It is good economy to have a certain degree of division of labor 
on the plantation. Wage hands, particularly on cotton plantations, 
are considered more profitably employed on crops other than cotton, 
and tenants are considered better for cotton. Wage hands may be 
more closely supervised than tenants, owing to the "gang" system, 
and because, among other reasons, the tenants are less capable in 
general farming than in producing one staple crop. Moreover, it is 
Cultivated Land in Cotton Plantations, Proportions in Cotton, Corn, and Other Crops, 1920 
PER CENT OF ALL CULTIVATED LAND 
20 30 40 50 60 
COTTON 59.2 
CORN 
PER CENT OF CROPPER- AND TENANT-OPERATED LAND 
10 20 30 AO 50 60 
COTTON 68.3 
CORN 
OTHER 
Fig. 16.— This chart shows the percentage of cotton, corn, and other crops on the plantation as a whole» 
compared with the percentage of each on cropper and tenant land and on wage-operated land. The 
landlord produces cotton primarily by the use of croppers and tenants and feed crops by the use of wage 
hands. 
believed, labor is a larger factor in the production of cotton than it is 
in other crops, hence it is to the landlord's advantage to produce 
cotton with croppers or tenants. Cotton also provides work for 
croppers and tenants practically throughout the year. Conse- 
quently the landlord can better afford to produce feed with wage 
hands and cotton with some form of tenancy. 
The size of tracts and the cropping system to be followed by the 
cropper and tenant are determined by the landlord. Primary con- 
siderations are whether the land will be well worked and the crop 
properly harvested, and whether the proportions of the various 
crops are consistent with the needs of the plantation as a whole. 
