62 BULLETIN 1269, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
on local merchants. When supplies are furnished through the local 
merchant, the landlord nearly always pays the tenant's account at 
the end of the month and charges him the amount in turn. This, 
and the occasional advancing of cash through local banks, shifts the 
cost of accounting largely to the merchant or bank, and the method, 
as a whole, is a matter of convenience. 
The plantation commissary usually carries in stock staple food sup- 
plies, such as meat, meal, lard, and sirup, and work clothing. The gen- 
eral store carries the usual line of dry goods and groceries, but canned 
goods and certain other articles of food and clothing are not sold to 
the laborers on account. On the whole, advances on the plantation 
take the nature of necessary food and clothing, farm supplies (as feed, 
tools, or work stock whenever needed), and medical aid, and occasion- 
ally small sums of cash. 
Food supplies on closely supervised plantations are advanced once, 
twice, or four times a month, and are commonly referred to as " ra- 
tions," but these " rations" are not the same as the rations drawn by 
month or year hands as a part of wages. In normal years, the total 
value of rations averages $15 to $20 or more per month for a man and 
wife. Additional supplies of clothing and in the cases of tenants, feed, 
implements, and work stock are furnished. Where fertilizers are used, 
they are advanced by the landlord. 
The season for furnishing supplies, excepting the initial advance of 
sums of cash ranging from $20 to $50 per family for " Christmas 
money," usually runs from January or February to August or Sep- 
tember. In case croppers work " through and through" until plant- 
ing time, they are paid wages in cash or supplies and charged for the 
work at a given rate per acre, in which case advances are not made 
until the crops are planted. During the harvest season, the landlord 
pays for the cottonseed in cash in lieu of advances. On the other 
hand, some plantation operators never cease advancing croppers and 
tenants the year around but carry all credits and charges on the books 
until the date of settlement at the end of the year. This plan has 
the advantage of restricting expenditures in the fall as well as of 
obtaining trade at the plantation store or commissary, but has the 
disadvantage of making the labor dissatisfied to some extent by their 
not having spending money at the time it is usually expected. 
The direct advance of cash is practiced by a few planters. This 
plan, whenever practicable, has certain advantages — such as reducing 
the costs of distributing supplies and keeping accounts and of pre- 
venting waste in handling supplies. From the tenants' point of view 
it results usually among the higher classes in a more economical use 
of supplies. It is doubtful, however, whether the system of cash ad- 
vances is practicable on most plantations. 
The amount of advances per year on the cotton plantation is usually 
determined roughly by the number of cultivated acres in cotton and 
by crop conditions, or by the landlord's estimate of the future value 
of the crop. Therefore the amount of the plantation cropper's or 
tenant's credit depends upon the crop and financial conditions gen- 
erally. In 1920 and 1921 the average amount of credit advanced to 
724 croppers on plantations was $289, and to 506 plantation tenants 
$555. These averages may be slightly higher than in strictly normal 
years, bu1 in certain seasons they maybe much higher. The serious- 
Dess of the credit problem on the plantation was greatly increased 
