TENANCY AXD OWNERSHIP AMONG NEGRO FARMERS 9 
The average size of the tenant farms for which surveyed data were 
taken was 56.9 acres, with an average valuation of $2,092, of which 
$429 was in equipment. The average valuation of farm buildings 
other than dwellings on the tenant farms was SI 23. This seems 
comparatively small when the valuation of buildings in other sec- 
tions of the country is considered. But the lumber for constructing 
these buildings is usually sawed locally, and the labor is that of the 
farm operator himself. For these reasons the buildings are probably 
valued at considerably less than their actual reproduction cost. 
Farms operated by owners included in the survey averaged 149 
acres, valued at $7,540. The average valuation of equipment was 
SI, 004 and of buildings, other than dwellings, $262. 
The average value of land and buildings per acre was $29.23 for 
tenant farms and $43.44 for owner farms. A considerable portion of 
this difference in value per acre is due to the fact that the dwelling 
on the average owner-operated farm is worth more than three times 
as much as the dwelling on the average tenant farm. But this will 
not account for all the difference. The value of farm land per acre r 
exclusive of buildings, average $20.21 for tenant farms and $34.12 
for owner farms. 
Equipment on the tenant farms was worth $7.54 an acre and on 
the farms operated by owners $6.72. This may indicate that on the 
average the tenant farms surveyed were somewhat better equipped 
than those operated by owners. The difference between tenants and 
owners in this respect, however, does not appear when equipment 
value is given in terms of crop acreage. The tenant farms had an 
average of $12.80 worth of equipment per crop acre as compared 
with $20.55 per crop acre on the larms operated by owners. 
CHANGES IN TENURE STATUS OF THE FARMERS SURVEYED 
Tenure progress in this county is usually made by progressive 
steps through different tenure stages to complete ownership of farms. 
This progress, commonly known as ''climbing the tenure ladder,'' 
consists of passing through some or all of the following tenure stages, 
usually in the order in which they are named : 
1. Worker without wages on parents' farms. 
2. Farm hand. 
3. Cropper (this is a tenure stage common onlv in the South, 
which to a considerable extent takes the place of the 
farm-hand stage in other sections of the country) . 
4. Share tenant owning most or all of the farm equipment. 
5. Cash tenant. 
6. Owner operator with farm mortgaged or owner additional; 
that is, the stage in which the operator owns part of the 
land operated and rents the remainder. 
7. Owner operator with farm free of mortgage. 
All of these stages except the first two were represented by the ten- 
ure of the farmers interviewed at the time the survey was made, but the 
number of farmers involved in some of the stages does not warrant a 
study of the tenure history of these farmers on the basis of all of the 
several stages. Table 6 shows the stages and the length of time in each 
stage through which the owner farmers had passed before becoming 
owners, and similar information is given for the tenant farmers. 
80641— 26t 2 
