that the average family _could_, but _does not_ pick all the cotton
it makes, so when it is seen that enough is on hand to pay all the bills
and leave a balance it is very careless about the remainder. Planters
have great difficulty in getting all the cotton picked and a
considerable portion is often lost. Extra labor must be imported. This
is hard to get and forms, when obtained, a serious burden on the income
of the tenant.

On the plantation from whose books the above records were taken the
system of bookkeeping is more than usually careful and the gin account
thus forms a separate item so that although all planters charge for the
ginning the charge does not always appear on the books.

These three families are believed to be average and indicate what it is
possible for the typical family to do under ordinary conditions. It is
but fair to state that the owners of this plantation make many efforts
to get their tenants to improve their condition and will not long keep
those whose accounts do not show a credit balance at the end of the
year. A copy of the lease in use will be of interest and its
stipulations form quite a contrast to the one quoted from Alabama. The
cash and share leases are identical save for necessary changes in form.
The names are fictitious.

"This Contract, made this date and terminating December 31, 1902,
between Smith and Brown, and John Doe, hereinafter called tenant,
Witnesses: That Smith and Brown have this day rented and set apart
to John Doe for the year 1902 certain twenty acres of land on James
Plantation, Washington County, Mississippi, at a rental price per
acre of seven dollars and fifty cents. Smith and Brown hereby agree
to furnish, with said land, a comfortable house and good pump, and
to grant to the said tenant the free use of such wood as may be
necessary for his domestic purposes and to advance such supplies,
in such quantity and manner as may be mutually agreed upon as being
necessary to maintain him in the cultivation of said land; it being
now mutually understood that by the term "supplies" is meant meat,
meal, molasses, tobacco, snuff, medicine and medical attention,
good working shoes and clothes, farming implements and corn. It is
also hereby mutually agreed and understood that anything other than
the articles herein enumerated is to be advanced to the said tenant
only as the condition of