In practically every country where the one-crop system has long established two unfavorable practices—crop liens and tenancy— have become deeply rooted. This is true in the cotton raising South, in Turkey, Russia, India, Spain especially Andalusia, and elsewhere. The secret of it lies largely in the fact that where one crop is the main reliance, a single bad year throws the whole community into poverty. Often when seedtime arrives the farmers have no seed, no fertilizer, and no money. This provides a wonderful opportunity for the money lender. Land is commonly cheap and not easily salable because it has been overcropped. Therefore the money lender prefers a lien on the prospective crop rather than a mortgage on the farmer's land. Time after time the crop is less than the farmer expects, and his debt remains largely unpaid, while ruinous rates of interest continue. Where the farmers are dull, inert, or happy-go-lucky as in many Asiatic regions, in Russia, and among people of the United States, this means almost permanent indebtedness which is not far removed from peonage.
The system of liens leads to tenancy. Since the farmers are not stimulated and trained by business dealings or otherwise, they do not know how to protect themselves. Hence, many farms fall into the hands of the money-lenders, and the former owners become tenants who work the farms on shares. In parts of the southern United States many of the whites and four-fifths of the colored people are share tenants. The system is extremely bad, for the tenant has no incentive to improve the land, and what does he care if the farm of a hard land lord deteriorates? The tenant's side of the bargain is seldom favorable, as may be judged from the following rhyme sung by the colored tenant who finds that when his cotton crop is baled and divided between the owner of the land and any others to whom he is indebted, it is a case of "Naught's a naught, and figger's a figger.
All for the white man, and none for the nigger." Fig. 42 showing the percentage of farms operated by owners gives an idea of the contrast between the North and South in respect to farm tenancy. Of course tenancy may be a step in the right direction if it means that a young man is temporarily a tenant while buying a farm, but when tenant farmers simply pay rent generation after generation, and even fall into debt because of the failure of their one crop, it is extremely harmful.
The One-crop Cotton Farming of the South.—Let us take cotton and wheat farmers as examples of the business conditions in communi ties of the one-crop type. In the southern United States tobacco was originally the most profitable crop, but the invention of the cotton gin, spinning jenny, and many other machines for cotton weaving, gave cotton an unrivaled lead more than a century ago. The general growth of manufacturing in England, New England and elsewhere produced an enormous demand for raw cotton, which only the South could supply. The long warm summers with their abundant rain' furnished the right kind of climate. The Negroes supplied abundant and cheap labor for planting and especially for the prolonged work of harvesting; and highly intelligent white planters supplied the organizing ability for running big farms and for marketing the crop.
At first there was plenty of fresh land with fine rich soil, which yielded abundant and profitable crops even with wasteful slave labor. When the yield began to diminish seriously because of exhaustion of the soil, new land was broken on another part of the plantation, and the planters still prospered. Finally, however, the old fields had to be
cultivated once more, but careless habits were so firmly established that the fields rarely received the requisite fertilizers or intensive cultivation with modern implements. When any cause lowered the price of cotton, the farmers at once felt the results of their mistaken policy. For example, during the Civil War when cotton was almost unsalable because it could neither be exported to Europe nor sold to the mills in the North, the cotton planters almost starved. Early in the Great War, when cotton dropped from 12.2 cents a pound in 1913 to only 6.6 in 1914, the condition of the cotton growers was so bad that everyone was urged to " buy a bale " and hold it in order to help the South. A little later, in 1920, the price soared to 37.7 cents a, pound and the Southern farmers prospered exceedingly. But after the war the price fell again to 11.5 cents in 1921, and there was renewed distress The net result is that during periods of economic disturbance the South, because of its one-crop agriculture, may suffer more than almost any other part of the country.
Elimination of the System in the the southern United States a vigorous campaign is being waged against the one crop system. The boll weevil has been an ill wind that has blown some good, for it has helped to convince the Southerners of the evils of the one-crop system. Its ravages discouraged cotton raising so much that in desperation some planters have turned to raising cattle. Their profits have encouraged others to follow suit. Again the boys' corn and pig clubs initiated by the government have done much good, for the boys often set their fathers an example in improved methods. Equally important are the teachings of the industrial schools and experiment stations. At present most farmers buy their seed direct from the ginning factory, taking it as it comes, some good, some bad. The schools are teaching them to buy or raise selected seed which will yield cotton with fine, long, abundant staple, and seeds of large size with much oil. The item of oil alone is highly important, for today the cottonseed oil of the South is worth about S100,000,000 per year. Another lesson is that of cultivating the soil as well as the cotton. For example, a man who was born as a slave bought some wornout land which a white planter had " turned out." By the use of green manure and good tillage he obtained three and a half bales of cotton per acre whereas the average yield for the whole South is only about one-third of a bale, or one-terith as much. With similar care every where the South could raise all the cotton that the world will take and also have abundant crops of many other kinds to preserve the fertility of the soil, give the farmers a more varied and stimulating occupation, and encourage them to use their ingenuity. The South, like all other places that are afflicted with the one-crop system and with the crop liens, tenancy, and discouragement which go with it, needs the system of government loans which is gradually being adopted, it needs better transportation and better systems of marketing the crops, but above all it needs to arouse itself so that each farmer will raise a well-planned variety of crops which will keep him busy at all seasons and stimulate him to do his best.