LAND TENURE AND PLANTATION ORGANIZATION 59 
major enterprise, however, the typical plantation organization ceases 
to exist. 
Livestock is found in most of the plantation areas. Most of the 
dairying, so far, is in the Alabama-Mississippi Black Belt, but is 
found occasionally elsewhere. Hay for market is produced to some 
extent in the Mississippi-Yazoo Delta, the upper part of the planta- 
tion region in the Mississippi Valley, and the Alabama-Mississippi 
Black Belt. The orcharding and truck gardening done on plantation 
land is found mostly in the South Atlantic States. A few plantations 
make a specialty of improved seed production and distribution. 
Most plantation operators agree that the plantation should produce 
its own feed for work stock. Of the 208 plantations studied, more 
than half (121) raised all the feed necessary for home use, and 34 
produced a surplus. 
Leguminous crops are often grown for fertilizer and feed in most 
of the plantation areas, except Texas. These are planted in combi- 
nation with corn, or following small grain. Some planters believe 
there would be no further need for commercial fertilizers if a legume- 
crop system of soil building were followed consistently. No plan for 
crop rotation or maintaining fertility without commercial fertilizers 
is thoroughly practicable without a diversity of enterprises, but crop 
rotation and soil building is possible by diversification. 
While the plantation is usually organized for specialization, serious 
disadvantages in the one-crop system are generally recognized. Crop 
rotation, even on the best soils, is essential to maintenance of fertility. 
But in the cultivation of staple crops, practically all vegetation is 
removed from the land, which leaves it subject to erosion and plant- 
food exhaustion. The one-crop system is too inelastic; it fails to 
provide facilities for turning to other lines in the case of declining 
prices of staple products. If a farmer already has certain enterprises 
m operation, it is an easy matter to enlarge upon the ones most 
favored and to reduce the others. He usually has at least some equip- 
ment and experience for such expansion and considerable change may 
be made in a single season without material additional expense. 
The problem of diversification on the plantation has numerous 
difficulties. The present system has grown up around a rather 
standard cropping system, partly a product of the slave regime and 
partly an economic necessity. Other deterring factors are inade- 
quate markets or distance from market, lack of facilities for handling 
certain products, and competition with other sections outside the 
region better adapted to or more favorably situated for producing the 
same crops. Also diversification requires more thought, energy, 
and foresight on the part of the tenant than staple crops. 
Moreover, under the prevailing practice of short-term tenure, 
there is no incentive for the tenant farmer to rotate his crops, because 
he has small assurance that he will benefit the next year. As one 
planter aptly expresses it, " Farmers who rotate their domicile every 
year or two instead of their lands can not diversify their crops." 
The man who goes to a new place can not prepare his land until 
after he moves in December or January, nor can he plant any crops 
except those that can be planted after he moves and which may be 
harvested during the year. This system does not permit the tenant, 
even when circumstances are favorable, to plant small grain or clovers, 
to raise cattle, or to accumulate any large amount of provisions or 
