THE FARM OWNER The rise from share tenancy to land ownership is best accomplished where industry and application on the part of the tenant is met by an attitude of helpfulness on the part of the landlord. This attitude often exists in in stances of cordial personal relations between tenants and landlords : Now I am a plain farmer and own a four-horse farm my self and work three families of tenants on my place, and I had rather help each one of my tenants to own that part of the farm that he works than to have to use them as tenants all of my life . . . if there was any way opened up to them for the help that would enable them to purchase." The way to land ownership in the Cotton Belt for the tenant is hard and difficult. If landlords are cooperative, the rise to ownership may be blocked by vicissitudes of fortune or the lack of indefinable but necessary personal qualities.
The writer, a landlord in Upson County, Georgia, soon after the Negroes were freed undertook to aid many of his old family Negroes with disastrous results in all except one case. Will mention one case of late occurrence to illustrate. Fourteen years ago I bought a farm of 120 acres and a fine mule and wagon and other items of supplies for one of my favorite Negroes, and sold them to him for what they all cost me. During that long time he has only paid the cost of the mule and the wagon and last year permitted the land to be sold for taxes." Racial inferiority, sometimes assigned by popular opinion, is no blanket cause for failure to rise in the tenure ladder. The story of the following Negro tenant shows the alterations of crop yields and price. His expenditures in years of prosperity indicate a desire for a higher standard of living: The following is the history of Harrison 'White, a renter of Tysonville, Macon County, Alabama, and his ten year struggle to get money to start buying land. In 1901 he farmed with one plow, paid himself out of debt, and cleared $200; in 1902 he continued farming with one plow and came out $175 behind; in 1903 he came out $388 behind; in 1904 he ran one plow, made 13% bales of cotton, paid up back debts and made 250 bushels of corn; in 1905, to make a crop he bought an ox to supplement his over-worked horse. He paid
his debts and cleared $380. He paid $35 for a wagon, $60 for a buggy, $55 for a sewing machine and $45 for fur niture; in 1906 he bought a mule on time for $225 and came out $190 behind; in 1907 he paid off $190 with interest, bought another mule and saved $200; in 1908 he saved 3 bales of cotton and much corn; in 1909 he paid out and cleared one bale of cotton; and in 1910 he paid all debts and banked $300 to invest in buying land." When needed personal qualities in tenants meet with integrity, fair dealing, and cooperation from landlords, the rise to ownership may be rapid. In the following case social advancement accompanied economic advancement: Possibly it will be helpful to relate what was done for three tenants down in Franklin County, whose cases came under my personal observation. These three "Smith Boys," as I shall call them, rented a tract of land containing one hundred and fifty acres. The owner of the land became inter ested in them and told them that he would like to see them own the land they tilled. They replied that it would be foolish for them to undertake to buy the land as it was all they could do to pay the rent. The owner said: "I am rather surprised that you do pay it. You are not half farming the land and you are not to blame. Why should you make my land rich? Next year I may get another tenant or may sell the land, and your labors would be lost. If you buy the land, you can afford to bring it up and can more than double its producing power." The Smith boys were timid; they had no faith in them selves and doubted the good faith of their landlord. But he insisted and practically forced them to buy the land on eight years' time. Soon a change commenced to come over the face of the land. One saw ditches and fence corners cleared up, terraces run here and there. The crops were rotating, orchards sprang up, outhouses were white-washed, and in five years one looked on a new land.