56 
BULLETIN 1269, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Xumberof work stock and amount of family labor are the factors 
which determine the size of the tract. The former, to a large extent, 
determines the acreage that can be cultivated, and the latter the 
amount of product the tenant may be able to harvest. The general 
policy, on the average, according to various statements, is 15 to 25 
acres for croppers and 20 to 30 acres for tenants, upon the basis of 
man and wife and one head of work stock. The figures were slightly 
higher than these in the Texas-Arkansas area. 
The average number of acres in cotton and corn, on cropper and 
tenant farms on the plantations studied, as shown in Table 17, 
although the averages are not confined to the unit basis of man and 
team, show more definitely the plantation practice as to the size and 
cropping system of cropper and tenant tracts. Croppers (about 
3,000 reporting) cultivated an average of 18.7 acres of cotton and 
7 acres of corn, a total of 25.7 acres; while about the same number 
of tenants of the various classes at the same time had from 25 to 28 
acres in cotton and 9 to 11 acres in corn. The average of all classes 
involved was 22.3 acres in cotton and 8.8 acres in corn, or a total of 
31.1 cultivated acres per farm. 
Table 17. — Size of tenant farms on 161 cotton plantations (classified by crops), 1920 
Tenure classes 
Crop acres 
Cotton 
Corn 
Total 
Cropper.. . . ____________ 
18.7 
24.7 
25.6 
28.4 
22. 3 
7.0 
11.3 
9.8 
8.5 
8.8 
25. 7 
Share 
36.0 
Cash . 
35.4 
Standing ... ... ... 
36.9 
31. 1 
There is usually a tendency on the cotton plantation for the land- 
lord to restrict the tenant's acreage to the amount of land which the 
tenant can be safely counted upon to handle without the use of hired 
labor, in order to avoid the risk of getting extra labor for the tenant's 
crop and making additional advances of credit. The tenant often 
wants as much (or more) land as he can work under the most favorable 
conditions. Whether the tenant has the maximum or minimum of 
crop land depends upon how scarce tenant labor is as compared with 
the scarcity of extra labor to be obtained. The policy oi the man- 
agement will seek to obtain the proper cultivation of the land at the 
least financial risk. 
No definite size of farms can be assigned to tenants on sugar-cane 
and rice plantations, since the total acreage depends in ninny cases 
upon the amount of capital the tenant controls or thinks best to 
employ. It is often the case with sugar-cane and rice tenants, 
particularly rice, that the tenant's managerial ability equals that 
of the Landowner. Consequently, no safe generalizations can be 
made in their cases. 
The acreage of crops, other than cotton and corn, for all classes 
of tenants is about 1 \ acre- per tenant. For purposes of comparison 
the following facts are given: The number of improved acres per 
person engaged in agriculture in the plantation region has increased 
from L880 to L920, according to the census of the two dates, except 
