The courier-index., 1921-04-22
(By ". B. Mann, Planter.)

For forty years, without intermis- sion, I have made corn and cotton with tenants on the shares, our trade being that 1 furnish every thing that goes to make the crop except the labor and that the ten ant furnish all the labor required to make and gather the crop under my directions. The crop is divided: I get half and the tenant gets half. In the forty years only three crop J have been profitable, counting only my half of the crop. l have cap italized the tenants lack of thrift and made my profit out of his half the other years.
 You can talk to any landlord and he will tell you that he is he only mentions one item, and that is he expects to make his tenants get along on half of what they did last year. To do this retrenchment, the only expected profit on an or ganized cotton farm is cut out, making it look as if we will suffer loss this year. For, if you an alyze your agreement with your tenant, you will see how a loss is inevitable and how unfair and un- just 1t is to both parties, and how imperative 1t is to make and so ad- just the contract that we may be able to live up to 1t and both pros- per.
 The old agreement is unfair. to me because my capital, or invest ment and expenses, is in use every day the entire twelve months, while the tenant, complying with the same agreement, labors less than 90 days. With our old agreement in force for. this season, I get re- suits as is shown by the statement for the twenty-acre crop. You be the judge whether my estimates are in line and fair. I furnish:
 20 acres land e $5 per acre $100.0O 1 mule, rent t----------- 35.OO Feed for mule 75.OO Flows, harness, blacksmith,
 etc. lo.0O Planting seed - 1900 Repairs on premises ------ 15.0O
 This represent a total cost of $252.OO.
 The tenant makes six bales of cotton; three are mine. 1 sell my share for s6O.OG per bale, aggre- gating S180.00. My loss, therefore, is s72.OO. In addition the tenant will make a debt of $15.00, amount ing in six month to S90.00. It will cost S18.00 per bale to pick six bales, making S10800 The total expenses of sthe tenant, therefore, amount to. S19S.00, which leaves him S18.0O in debt. This estimate does not include expenses that are of necessity entailed by sickness or death in the family of the tenant, nor does it include lodge or church dues. The tenant no more realizes the responsibility of this debt and loss than does the mule he blows. ! If I quit feeding him he moves to another farm. This is why the ten ant lives in sheds instead of houses. He fixes no comforts for himself for fear the one that follows him will get the benefit. l cannot inn prove his premises nor the land he works because he does not know nor care how long he will occupy them. This is what depreclates cotton land values.
 With this agreement with a ten ant my land has no shadow of a chance to be remunerative or to become of permanent value. It won't sell until it pays to own 1t. While this system prevails, can only grow annuals-no pastures, no soil building crops. I must start all over every year. There can be no rule enforced, no care exercised with regard to planting seed. The farm implements are not cared for; no sign of thrift or economy IS visible on the farm. It is a proven 1 fact that we have the seasons, the climate. the land that admits of a greater diversity of the products of the soil, and as abundantly as any country on earth. We have the best and easiest handled labor of any country; they are amenable to our wishes and trades to the extent that it makes us entirely responsible for their state of thrift or the lack of thrift.
 No agreement nor partnership can exist with pleasant and profit able results unless the basis upon which it was entered into IS fair and just. have never made one of these agreements without the eX- pectation of making profit out of the tenants half. The tenant starts with nothing; he cannot get anything from anyone but me and only then on such terms as best suit my purposes. The tenant reas- ons that I am managing the entire transaction; that if I sell him too much stuff or if disaster befalls the crop, that is my lookout, since I have gotten all he made. This IS all true. It is also true that he has lived only to the letter of the law, that he has never tried to live up to the spirit of the law. He tried to see how few days work he could do and fill his part of the agree ment. With the same feeling for the tenant, gave him small blow and had him go twice in one row, when I could have given him blow that would have done the same work | ts...a p,r% ' v.ooCnnpd