BULLETIN 
OF THE 

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 
19161 No.65 
NOVEMBER :20 1916 
A Social and Economic Survey of 
Southern Travis County 

BY 
Members of the Texas Applied Economics Club 
IN CO-OPERATION WITH 
The Division of Public Welfare, Department of Extension 

EDITED BY 
LEWIS H. HANEY 
and 
GEORGES. WEHRWEIN 


Published by the University six times a month and entered a.a second-class matter at the polltomce at _ AUSTIN, TEXAS 
Publications of the University of Texas 
Publications Committee: 
W. J. BATTLE C. HARTMAN 
E. C.B.AR.KD J.L.llENDERSON 
G. C.BUTTE A.G. JUDSON 
R.H. GRIFFITH J. A. LOK.il 
The University publishes bulletins six times a month. These comprise the official publications of the University, publica­tions on humanistic and scientific subjects, bulletins prepared by the Department of Extension and by the Bureau of Munic­ipal Re.search, and other bulletins of general educational in­terest. With the exception of special numbers, any bulletin will be sent to a citizen of Texas free on request. All communica­tions about University publications should be addressed to the Editor of University Publications, University of Texas, Austin. 
A. c. llALDWIR a •o••' AUMI• 



BULLETIN 
OF THE 

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 
19161No. 65 
NOVEMBER20 1916 
A Social and Economic Survey of 
Southern Travis County 

BY 
Members of the Texas Applied Economics Club 
IN CO-OPERATION WITH 
Th• Di'fJision of Public Welfare, Department of Extension 

EDITED BY 
LEWIS H. HANEY 

and 
GEORGE~WEHRWEIN 

P11'1tU1hed b7 the University six times a month and entered u 1econd-clas1 matter at the postomce at .AUSTIN, TEXAS 
The benefits of education and of useful knowledge, generally ditlused through a community, are essential to the preservation of a free gov­ernment. Sam Houston. 
Cultivated mind is the guardian genius of democracy. . . . It is the only dictator that freemen acknowl· edge and the only security that free­men desire. 
Mirabeau B. Lamar. 
The schoolhouses dotted here and there and everywhere over the great expanse of this nation will some day prove to be the roots of that great tree of liberty which will spread for the sustenance and protection of all mankind. 
\Voodrow Wilson. 
PREFACE 
The following pages are a contribution to knowledge con­cerning rural economy in the South. More than that, they present much information about broader social and religious cmnditions. As the only attempt to make quantitative studies of these subjects, they deserve the most careful consideration by all interested in the welfare of the South-which, of course, means all citizens of the United States. The chief merit of these studies lies in their quantitative character: though the measure­ments ar·e but rough, and are supplemented all too often by estimate, they indicate what can be done towards getting exact information, and in themselves supply a good deal of it. 
The work of this Survey is a good illustration of cooperative endeavor. The general conception w.as mine, and the field work was carried on under my direction. Mr. George S. Wehrwein of the Department of Extension rendered valuable assistance in planning and directing the field work, and he has prepared a large part of the tables and text matter. The members of the Texas Applied Economic'S Club, assisted by a number of selected Economics students, did the field work, and wrote several chap­ters. The tables are largely the result of work done by students in the Statistics class, under the direction of Mr. Wehrwein and myself. The coUection of so large a mass of data would have been impossible without funds supplied by the Department of Extension, and the Survey was aided by several citizens of Austin who placed automobiles at the service of the investigators. 
It is to be noted, also, that this Social and Economic Survey is supplemented by a survey of home conditions and by a survey of school conditions prepared contemporaneously by the Uni­versity of Texas School of Domestic Economy and by the De­partment of Extension, respectively. 
Mr. Wehrwein was ill charge of the preparation of the original manuscript of this bulletin. As chief editor, I read the work in the manuscript and again in page proof, making numerous corrections and suggestions. I regret that on account of absence from Austin I was not able to take part in the preparation of the text and many of the tables. Owing to a misunderstanding, the galley proof was not sent to me, and consequently I have not had an opportunity to make some larger changes that might improve the work. Mr. Wehrwein, however, has done his work so well that this bulletin needs no apology. He is responsible for the accuracy of the printed :figures. 
In the Editor's judgment, there is one important shortcoming in the work, which is the fault of no single individual. This shortcoming is an omission to touch with due balance upon the character of Texas tenant farmers as a cause of their own troubles. The troubles are shown, and they are shown as the troubles of the tenants. The troubles of the landlords are hardly mentioned. Always shifting, often shiftless, sometimes unruly, the average tenant is to be regarded with a pity mingled with a feeling for the one who, as a business man, has to deal with him. 
Moreover, there is some tendency to lump all tenants, or all the white tenants at least, as though they are all inferior. It is to be remembered that there are many tenants above the average, and that in the area covered by the Survey, some ten­ants were found who were as good farmers as the owners. 
On the whole, one must get a pretty sad picture of conditions, social and economic, in this section, though it is not easy to place the blame. Indeed, part of the evil is no living man's fault; but is inherent in a situation in which unforunate systems of cropping and tenure are associated with an unfortunate ming­ling of races and a climate that makes the improvement of those systems difficult. 
One of the greatest needs of agriculture in the section is preparation against the vicissitudes of the climate. Even the more elementary steps in "dry farming" have not been taken, 
•.Yhile drainage and prevention of washing have hardly begun. It is to be regretted that sufficient data were not gathered to 
enable us to answer the question, which variety of tenancy is most productive. As it is, but an unsatisfactory hint is to be obtained from the table showing the production of cotton per acre by the different classes. It will be noted that the negro owners appear to have produced less cotton per acre than the negro tenants, and that the productivity of the Mexican tenants was high. Diffierences in quality of soil and equipment, how­ever, have not been taken into consideration. 
Some light is thrown on the marketing problem, though again it is to be regretted that more adequate data wer·e not obtained. It is shown that the bulk of the cotton is sold during the "autumnal dip" in prices and that the few who held their erop secured considerably higher prices. It seems probable that in most cases the increase in price more than covered the cost of holding, though this is not demonstrated. 
A noticeable feature of the systems of tenure is the consid­erable extent of cash payment used. Ten per cent of white tenants paid a straight cash rent, and 50 per cent paid part cash. This is a good thing, as it tends to put farming on a business basis. 
It will be observed that there were several cases in which the 
law prescribing a fixed rental was not followed. It is doubtful 
if such a law can be long kept in force. 
Hardly a trace of any results of the propaganda of Socialism 
or of the Single-tax theory were found. 
It would be impossible, however, to point out all the important 
matters to be found in this. bulletin, in the small compass of a 
preface. 
It is with sorrow that I realize that this preface is probably 
the last that I will write for a bulletin of the Applied Economics 
Club, and I shall always regard my connection with the forma­
tion and activities of the Club as a most valuable privilege. 
It is a great pity that, amidst the demagoguery and the alternate 
radicalism and standpatism which attend the discussion of our 
social problems, the still small voice of science has been so 
little heard. If our public officials, high as well as low, and 
every editor-to go no further--O"Ould be supplied with a set 
of the bulletins of which this is the fifth, and by some magic 
could be induced to study them, it could not but make £or a better Texas.• LEWIS H. HANEY, Washington, D. C., Jan, 20, 1917. 
The other bulletins are as follows: 
TEXAS APPLIED ECONOMIC CLUB STUDIES 
(Published as University of Texas Bulletins.) 

1. Some Corporation and Taxation Problems of the State (1912; 
U. of T. Bui. No. 236). 
2. 	
Studies in Agricultural Economics (1913; U. of T. Bui. No. 298). 

3. 	
Studies in the Industrial Resources of Texas (1915; U. of T. Bui., 1915; No. 3) . 

4. 	
Studies in the Land Problem in Texas (1915 ; U. of T. Bui., 1915; No. 39). 


Chapter I 
Chapter II 
Chapter III Chapter IV 
Chapter V 
Chapter VI 
Chapter VII 
Chapter VIII 
Chapter IX 
Chapter X 
Chapter XI 
Chapter XII 
Chapter XIII 
Chapter XIV 
Chapter XV 
Chapter XVI Chapter XVII Chapter XVIII 
Chapter XIX 
Chapter XX Chapter XXI Chapter XXII Chapter XXIII Chapter XXIV ChapterXXV 
TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 
Part I. The Land 
General Character of the 
Land: Soil and Climate .. G. S. Wehrwein. . . 10 Risk and Crop Failure..... G. S. Wehrwein... 17 Prod·uctivity and the Value 
of the Land.....••..•.. G. S. Wehrwein... 20 
Part Il. The People 
Growth of Rural Population 
and Birthplace of Farm­
ers ...•.....•......... G. S. Wehrwein. . . 25 


Birthplace ;i.nd Occupation 
of Parents ...... . ...... T. J. Coffee.. . . . . . 28 
Age, Mortality and Size of 
Family ..............• G. S. Wehrwein... 32 


Occupations of C hi 1d r e n 
After Leaving the Farm..G. S. Wehrwein . .. 39 
Literacy, Education, and 
Reading of Travis County 
Farmers ...... . ....... G. S. Wehrwein . . . 42 


Civic and Political Life.... G. S. Wehrwein... 49 
Social Life .............• G. S. Wehrwein. . . 53 


Religious Activity ........ R. B. Woods.. . . . . 64 


Part ill. Industrial Organization 
Classes of Tenants and of 
Rent Contracts ..•...... Hines Baker 71 
Length of Tenure........• G. S. Wehrwein. . . 77 


Residence and Occupation of 
Landlords . . ...... . .... G. S. Wehrwein and 
E. B. Naugle.... 82 Size of Farms.......•...• G. S. Wehrwein. .. 86 Conservation of Land. . .... Vincent Lanfear . . 91 The Marketing of F arm 
Produce and Purchase of Feed and Seed.......•.. G. S. Wehrwein . . . 97 Crops and Diversification in 
Travis County ......... Paul E. Haralson. . 110 Livestock . . . . ........ .. . Herbert Scharff . . . 114 Implements and Machinery.. Rex Baker ....... 120 Farm Buildings .... .. .... G. S. Wehrwein ... 126 Farm Labor .......... : .. Leonard L. Watkins 129 Rural Credits .... . ......• E. D. Penn....... 140 Farmers' Organizations .... G. S. Wehrwein ..• 147 
j 
'-......., 

····-~... ,: 
TERRITORY COVE.RED BY THE 
SOGIAL & ECONOMIC SURVEY 
SOUTHERN TRAVIS COUNTY 1915-16 
SCJiOOL.$ D W HITE • PllE:GRO 1J MC-IC.AN CHUR01ES 0 WHITE e NEGRO () MEXICAA 00 INDICATES BOTH IN ONE BUll..DIN6 -ROADS ALONG Wt«.k SOiCD1AL5 \NtRf OBTAllED 
RGA.05 NOT c.ov~eo CY INYE!ITIGl'l.TORS 
."""' 
_·'(·· 
CHAPTER I 
INTRODUCTION 
The area selected for the purpose of this Survey was the southern part of Travis County, lying south of the Colorado river and east of the International and Great Northern railway. 'l'his section, which covers about 185 square miles, lies mostly in the "Black-land Belt" and a large part of it is a fairly representative Texas cotton country. 
The aim of the investigators was to visit the farmers in this area in order to get records of their farm operations, social con­ditions, and homes. Usually a ''team'' of two people went to each farm, a man to visit the farmer and get the data concerning his farm, and a woman to see the farmer's wife and get the data concerning the home. In many cases, however, the men went alone, and in some instances the women covered some extra homes. A total of 463 farms was visited, 404 of these yielding informa­tion on economic and social conditions and furnishing the basis for this study. A somewhat smaller number gave information on home conditions, which material has been tabulated and worked up by the Domestic Science Department of the Univer­sity and published in a separate bulle·tin. 
The Department of Extension made a study of the schools in this same area, supplementing the surveys of the farm and home. The material is published in a third bulletin. 
The survey was begun on November 15, 1915 and continued until December 10. All this time the weather was very favor­able and the investigators worked almost every day (f;1Xcept Saturdays and Sundays). After Christmas only one more trip was made, and then bad weather: stopped the work. The ter­ritory in which information was actually obtained is shown in the accompanying maps (see preceding page, and page 9). 
At first it was planned to visit every farm in the area actually 
covered, but this was found to be impracticable. In many in­
stances no one was at home, and to send a party back into a 
territory for just one home was found to be too expensive when a team of two people could easily visit from four to six farms 
by going on to new territory. For statistical purposes this is 
no llerious objection, because the farms actually covered were 
taken at random-that is, no one was omitted purposely, or by 
choice. Statisticians agree that averages obtained in this way 
approximate very closely averages obtained when every farm is 
visited, so that for practical purposes the two are identical. 
In some cases the farmers refused to give information. These 
were very few indeed, for the people as a rule were very willing 
and helpful. Many of the Mexicans could not talk English and 
for this reason either gave incomplete information or had to 
be omitted. 
Retired farmers, laborers, and those who had just moved on 
to their places were also passed by, except to get general in­
formation as to conditions. The number of laborers was con­
siderable, and perhaps another type of schedule ought to have 
been prepared to get information from them. 
The proportions of these various classes of omissions may be judged by the experience of one investigator who went to 99 farms. He obtained more or less complete schedules from 62 farmers and failed to get information from the other 37. Of these 37, two refused to give information, three had just moved on to the farm, two were retired farmers, 10 were laborers, 10 were Mexi­cans who could not talk English (this was more than usual), and 10 were not at home. 
The information obtained was often by no means accurate. Very few farmers keep books and can give accurate data where figures are asked for, especially as to crops and marketing. Many of the statements made were mere estimates at the best, as for instance, those concerning the number of visits to town. In many cruses farmers were afraid that the material would be used for purposes of taxation and purposely undervalued their property. In 21 out of the 62 cases obtained by the investigator mentioned. the wife or some other member of the family gave the information, which, of course, could not be as accurate as if given by the business head of the family. These various factors led to discrepancies, unfilled schedules, and inconsis­tencies. But the errors were in some cases on the side of over­statement; in others on the side of under-statement, so that the averages no doubt show the tendencies fairly accurately­perhaps almost as truly as if all the data were· in full. Obser­vation of conditions in the area tend to confirm the statistics obtained. Where discrepancies occur they are easily explained, and in many cases really help to show true conditions. 
In practically all the tables based on this investigation, the farmers are divided as to Whites, Negroes, and Mexicans, and these racial classes are again divided into owners and tenants. In the case of the Mexicans only two were owners ; these are classed with the Mexican tenants, two cases be·ing too small a number to be used in a statistical way. This classification offers opportunity for comparing the races as to their farm operations, home conditions1 etc., and as to the division between tenants and owners. Much of this survey will deal with these comparisons. 

PART I. THE LAND 
CHAPTER II 
GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE IJAND: SOIL AND 
CLIMATE 

GEO. S. WEHRWEIN 
Travis County is divided into two marked sections by the Bal­cones escarpment, which is a great break in the rock structure running through Texas from the Red River to the Rio Grande. To the west of this "fault" is the Edwards Plateau, a rough and hilly country, practically unfit for agriculture, and locally called the "mountains." The territory covered by the Social and Eco­nomic Survey lies east of the escarpment in the lower and more level Coastal Plain. It has several distinct soil areas of vary­ing productivity; the largest one, however, is the Houston Black Clay, which is the characteristic cotton soil. 
Soils: South of Austin and parallel with the International and Great Northern railway, is a broad belt of gently rolling hills with frequent outcrops of the glaring white Austin chalk in the canyons cut by the streams. Live oaks and cedars are the trees usually found. The soil here is the Austin clay, dark brown to black in color down to a depth of ten inches or so. It washes easily and crops grow'n on it cannot withstand drought as well as on the Houston clay. 
One or two areas of the Colton clay are found in the Austin chalk section. This is derived from the Edwards limestone, and is a reddish-b>:own clay, or clay loam, containing many frag­ments of flint, which make agriculture difficult. 
East of the Austin clay is a rolling prairie of gently rounded hills with wide shallow valleys between. Here is the large area of Houston black clay. This soil is exceedingly fertile and con­sists of black, waxy, prairie soil with a large amount of organic matter in the first foot or so. It erodes very. easily and when the heavy rains come enormous gullies are formed. The sub­soil is a stiff, light-brown clay, which enables the crops to with­stand the hot dry summers much better than those grown on any of the other upland soils. 
Some of the higher surfaces in the Houston clay area are cov­ered with a thick depo.sit of flint boulders, the remnants of a vast sheet brought here by the streams from the Edwards Plateau. This gravel is mixed with the underlying black soil and is hard on farm implements. Some of the deeper deposits on the hill­tops almost prevent cultivation. Near St. Elmo is another sheet 
~AwnNCLAY  
[[II] C()(/LTON CLAY  
am\ lUf'l<IN f'!Nt mm &WOY LON1  
CY THE TERRITORY COVERED THE SURVEY  BY  [IT] ALLWZ<l :Jf¥LS (YAZOO CLAYS ANO LOAl'IS) • Y.itll'l/lfASTONY aAY  

FIGURE II 
Based on U. S. Soil Survey of Austin Area. The small Travis gravelly loam and other scattered areas are omitted. 
of this gravel, which, however, is so well mixed with the other soil that it is not indicated on the soil map. 
The earth roads in the Houston day soil become almost im­passable in rainy weather because of the extremely sticky and tenacious character of the soil when wet. 
Along the present streams are found areas of alluvial soils. The lowest terraces along the Colorado are subject to overflow, but some forty to fifty feet above the present level of the river are alluvial deposits of grayish to light brown sandy loam with a large silt content that are not subject to overflow and are suitable for truck growing. This area is called the Yazoo sandy loam. 
The Travis gravelly loam lies about 150 feet above the river and is also an alluvial soil consisting of fine quartz sand and pebbles mixed with a sandy loam of very little agricultural value. 
The Yazoo clay is found along the smaller streams and con­sists of heavy dark brown or black clay brought into the stream valley by the rains. The valley of Onion Creek above Pilot Knob appears to have been an old lake basin that was drained when the stream cut its canyon through the rocks near this old marine volcano. In this old lake bed are alluvial deposits sometimes forty feet deep. 
Pilot Knob consists of three low summits rising about one hundred feet above the adjacent prairie. Rock fragments of lava are found here and within a radius of six miles there are other evidences of volcanic action, such as outcrops of basalt and beds of tuff. Such outcrops are very prominent in the Onion Creek Canyon. The soil here is called the Yakima stony clay, and covers an area of about three square miles. It is a stiff reddish-brown clay filled with rock fragments. 
East of Garfield is an area of the Lufkin sandy loam derived from a series of sand, sandstone and stiff clays of the Lytton formation, a type. of rock not found in the area surveyed. It consists of a gray and b:r:-ownish-red fine sandy loam about a foot deep with a stiff sticky red or brown subsoil. This type of soil is also subject to erosion. 
Drainage and W ate1· Supply : The general slope of the land in Travis County is southeastward towards the Gulf. However, in the area covered by this survey there is a secondary slope from the Hays County line northeastwards toward the Colorado River. l\fanchaca and Carl are 700 or more feet above sea level, but from here the altitude decreases to 400 feet and less in the valley of the Colorado. 
The streams flowing into the Colorado follow this secondary 
slope. The Colorado is the only one that flows all the year and even it varies greatly in volume and is subject to enormous floods. The other streams dry up during the dry parts of the year, though Onion Creek has alternate stretches of running water and dry bottom <luring these times. The upper part of its course has some good springs, which help to keep it more or less permanent. 
During heavy rains these streams rise quickly and flood the country, doing great damage to crops, and even carry away bales of cotton and stacks of feed. In flood times traffic is almost stopped, for in many places there are no bridges and the streams become unfordable. At other places low heayy concrete bridges have been built which are high enough for ordinary floods, but allow the water to wash over them when it gets very high. In a few places bridges have been built high enough above the stream to allow traffic at all times. During these floods people are cut off from their market at Austin and the supplies of food at the country store are quickly exhausted. Boats have been used to f.erry provisions across Onion Creek for a week or more. At such times there is often real suffering because of lack of food, for so few people "live at home" on food raised on the farms. 
The Houston Black Clay is 500 or more feet deep, which makes it very difficult to get good well water. Even if water is found, it is apt to be brackish and alkaline. The areas where springs and wells are found are very rare. One such area exists at Creedmoor, less than a quarter of a mile wide, so that one farmer has to pump water almost a quarter of a mile from a well situated in this favored area to his house lying outside of it. Cisterns are commonly used to catch the rain water for do­mestic purposes, and, to supply the stock, artificial ponds are built to hold the rain as it flows off the slopes. But in years of drought these sources fail and water has to be hauled either from the few wells, or more often, from the streams. Since Onion Creek is the only permanent stream, it is the source of water for people often as far away as seven miles. One farmer reported that one year he hauled water this distance from No­vember until the April rains refilled his cistern. Water becomes an article of commerce under these conditions. The Creedmoor farmer mentioned sells water to farmers for miles around at five cents a barrel. Recently other well-owners in this locality have begun to sell at ''cut'' prices. One farmer on Onion Creek put up a windmill and tank to pump water from the stream and sold water to his neighbors. A tenant who had a spring on his place near Creedmoor sold $100 worth of water in one year without the consent or knowledge of his landlord. 
Rainfall: As has been said, the rainfall is very variable in this area. The country is subject to droughts, especially in the summer months, and when it does rain it often comes in great downpours as in December, 1913, when there was a rainfall of sixteen inches, and in April, 1915, when almost twenty inches of rain fell in one month. At such times the hills seem "'to slide away bodily,'' as one farmer said. 
AVER.AGcE RAINFALL 1906-1915 AT AUSTIN 

FIGURE III 
Figure III shows the aYerage rainfall, month by month, for the past ten years ( 1906-1915). The effect of the floods of 1913 and 1915 is very noticeable in the April and December averages. Table I shows the average, maximum, and minimum rainfall at Austin from 1856-1909. 
Social and Economic Survey of Southern Travis County 15 
TABLE I 
RAINFALL AT AUSTIN, 1855-1909 

Rainfall 
Jan . 
Feb. 
Mar . 
April 
May 
June 
July 
Aug. 
Sept. 
Oct. 
Nov. 
Dec. 
-----1-­
2.00 
2.40 
2.41 
3.17 
4.19 
2.52 
2.40 
2:41 
3.74 
2.83 
2.53 
2.34
Average ------­
8.00 
9.41 
7.02 
19.82 
12.59 
8.41 
12.65 
10.88 
12.78 
12.54 
7.99 
16.14
Maximum ----­
.00 
~ 
.D 
.W 
~ 
.02 
m 
.00 
.00 
.00 
ffi 
.00
Minimum -----­
While the average varies but little from month to month, May is the month showing the greatest precipitation, with April and September following very closely. The table shows that rain­fall for April in one year was almost 20 inches and in another but one-tenth of an inch. Other months show the same varia­tions. The largest annual rainfall was 51.7 inches in 1888 and the lowest 18.3 inches in 1879, the average for the fifty-three years being 32.96 inches. 
Not only does the rainfall vary from year to year for any particular month, but varies as to locality. Many of the summer rains are extremely local in character. A much-needed rain may fall near Austin while Creedmoor may not get a drop. This fact was mentioned by a number of farmers and accounts for the great variations as to the testimony of crop failures. 
TABLE II 
TEMPERATURE FOR AUSTIN 1901-1915 

The above table is based on a period of fifteen years for which the record was kept. ·warm weather begins early in March and lasts until November. During the winter violent changes in tem­perature are brought about by the "northers," which are cold 
2.-S. 
Bulletin of the University of Texas 
north or northwest winds coming freim the frozen plains. Gen­erally the winters are not cold enough to freeze the ground. The average date for the first killing frost is November 18 and that of the last frost, March 12. The earliest known frost in Austin came on October 12, the last one of the spring, April 12. These averages are based on the same period as those in the table. The frosts are not .serious enough to interfere with plow­ing to any extent ·in any season of the year. 
The summer heat is made I.ess oppressive by the south winds which come from the Gulf. These winds are the prevailing ones for the greater part of the year and hardly ever cease to blow during the warm months of the year except when the atmosphere is affected by some great cyclonic disturbance. The temperature of both summer and winter is equalized by the Gulf l;lreezes, making the summer cooler and the winter warmer. 
Bibliography 
Soil Survey of the Austin Area. Field Operations of Bureau of Soils, 1904. United States Department of Agriculture. 
Summary of the Climatological Data for the United States by Sections, Sec. 43, Central Texas.-United States Weather Bureau. 
Annual Summaries of Texas Section of the Climatological Service of the Weather Bureau.-Bunnemeyer. Bulletin No. 3: 1915, University of Texas, ''Studies in the Industrial Resources of Texas,'' pp. 16-39. 
Social and Economic Survey of Southern Travis County 17 
CHAPTER III 
RISK AND CROP FAILURE• 
GEO. S. WEHRWEIN 
Practically all of Texas is subject to sudden changes in tem­perature, droughts and heavy downpours of rain. While west and southwest Texas suffer more than Travis Comity from these climatic changes, the area suveyed is not altogether free from crop failures due to these causes. Gardens are always risky because of the dry summer weather, except where irrigation is possible. Winter gardens are jeopardized by the "northers." In, many places farmers report that the soil is not adapted to orchards. Where a farmer has to rely on cistern water for domestic purposes and the pond for water for his cattle, irri­gated gardens and large numbers of live stock are almost out of the question. 
Under these climatic conditions, tlie crops are reduced to a few staples, such as cotton, corn, and cane, which experience has shown are fittest to survive and surest to make a crop. 
In order to determine the risk in agriculture, the question was asked: "What kind of a cotton crop did you make in 1910 T I£ it was a fair or poor crop, what prevented you from making a full crop?'' The accompanying tables show the answers to these questions. Many did not live on their present farms, and others did not remember the exact conditions as far back as 1910 and were inclined to say ''pretty good'' or use some other uncertain term. 
TABLE III 
CONDITION OF CROPS, 1910-1915 

Cotton. 
Oom. 
Per 
Per 
Total Good Fair · Bad cent 
Total Good Fair Bad cent 
failure . 
failure. 
--------1---------------------­
1910_____ _________________ 
81 37 38 6 7 
58 28 27 3 5.2 
1911_______ _______________ 
70 33 31 6 8.5 
103 48 49 6 6 
113 43 51 14 13 
9'2 47 39 6 6.5
1912_--------------------­
1913______________________ 
132 71 47 14 10.6
184 ffT 80 17 9 
1914______________________ 
245 73 109 63 26 
19i 00 67 58 30.0 
203 80 91 32 15.5 
1915----------------------, 269 78 1!4 67 25 
*The tables in this chapter are partly the work of a University of Texas class in Statistfos (Econ. 19) under the direction of Dr. Haney and Mr. Wehrwein. 
Bulletin of the University of Texas 
Omitting the earlier years and taking only 1914-15, fully one­fourth of the farmers report failures or partial failures in cotton in these two years. Sixteen per cent report a poor corn crop for 1915, and 30 per cent for 1914. 
Table IV shows the reasons for crop failure in these two staple crops. 
'fABLE IV 
REASONS FOR CROP FAILURES, 1913-1915 
Corn.
Cotton. 
Boll 
Miscel-
Total 
Drought 
Rain 
Weevil 
Storm 
Total 
Drought 
Rain 
laneous 
_______,___ 
0
1913__________________ 
31 
9 
7
16
0
10 
8
13
1914 __________________ 
103 
9
44
36
53 
24 
3 
89
23 
21
1915__________________ 
159 
23
37
42 
18 
81
41 
58 
80
74
TotaL_________ 
293 
82
21 
186
105 
90
77 
Of the 293 answering for the three years, 1913, 1914, an<l 1915, 26 per cent reported drought as the cause for their failure to make a good crop, 36 per cent reported ''rain,'' 31 per cent the ''boll weevil,'' and almost 7 per cent ''storm.'' The seeond Galveston storm was responsible for the storm dam­age of 1915. 
Almost 44 per cent of the corn failures were due to drought, and 40 per cent to rain. Often both rain and drought were re­ported for the same year, due to the fact that an extremely wet spring was followed by a dry summer. 
In interpreting the tables, it must be borne in mind that the area represents a great variety of soils, elevations, and even rainfall. A season that is very fav01;able for the farmer living in the river bottoms may be very disastrous for the one living on the Houston clay at an elevation of 700 feet. Neither do the ''bad'' crops represent a complete crop failure in the sense that it was not worth while to attempt harvesting the crop. 
The tables bear out the statement that the farmer is subject to extreme weather conditions, which tend to make the risk of complete or partial crop failure very great. The number of ''fair'' cotton crops are larg~r than the ''good'' crops for practically every year from 1910 to 1915, and 6 per cent of the farmers reported poor crops for the best year. 
This lack of certainty in crops naturally affects the farmer's standing when he wants to borrow money on the basis of crops and farm animals, and therefore has its effect on the interest rate that farmers have to pay. 
Bulletin of the University of Texas 
CHAPTER IV 
PRODUCTIVITY AND VALUE OF THE LAND* 
GEO. S. WEHRWEIN 
Relative Productivity of Different Soils. 
The following table shows the relative productivity of the principal soil types based on the yield of cotton for 1915. It is based on the reports of 48 farmers living in the Austin clay area, 14 living on the Lufkin fine sandy loam, 10 on the Yazoo sandy loam, and 70 on the Houston black clay. The other areas are too small to contain a sufficiently large number of farms. 
TABLE v 
PRODUCTIVITY OF VARIOUS SOILS 
Class 
White owners..•...-----•• --------------__----­White tenants••..----------------------------­

Negro owners..--------------------------------­
Negro tenants____ -----------------------------· 
Mexicans _----•.____ --------------------------. 
Average.•.... --------------------------­
Production of Bales of Cotton Per Acre 
Austin Lufkin Yazoo H_g1':c~on f~;";~~e clay loam loam clay area 
.30 .39 .28 .436 .39 .27 .81 .t8 .895 .38 .15 .15 .37 .266 .34 -~~ .'!7 .36 .362 .36 .38 .28 .25 .324 .38 
------------· 
.28 .3<>4 .341 .375 
In comparing these yields and averages the small number of cases must be taken into consideration in the case of the two loams. Yields also vary with each farm, depending on the farm practice and .skill of the farmer, and with the weather which may have been more favorable in one section than in another. The United States government soil survey of the Aus­tin area made in 1905 gives the average production of cotton on the Austin clay as % of a bale, on the Lufkin loam from 1l'i. to 113, the Yazoo loam and the Houston clay from 1jto %
2 
of a bale per acre. The last two are higher than the yields re­
*Table VI and the diagram are the work of the class in Statistics. 
ported for 1915, and this may be due in a measure to soil deterioration since 1905. 
Relative Productivity of Farmers. 
The last column in the table gives the production of the va­rious classes of farmers, irrespective of soils and for the whole area. These figures may be used to show the relative efficiency of these farmers, at least as far as the production of cotton pe:i:: acre is concerned. The white owners head the list. White ten­ants and the Mexicans follow with .38 of a bale per acre;. and the negro owners are the lowest. The difference is veTy 5mall, even between the highest and lowest, being only :five-hundredths of a bale, or about twenty-five pounds per acre. That the negro and Mexican tenants a.re ,superior to the negro e>wners may be• due to the pressure of supervision. The high productivity of the Mexican accounts in part for the preference that is given him over whites and negroes by many of the landlords who were interviewed. 
Cotton raising is a very standardized type of farming, and 
with ordinary methods such as are common in any oDe' commu­
nity siiailar results can be expooted of all classes of farmers, 
and are in themselves not a test of efficiency of farmers. It is 
necessary to inquire into the livestock raised, conservation of the! 
soil, gardens, feed raised or bought, and actual incC1me, before 
this point can be settled. 
V alne of the Land. 
The attempt to get the true value of the farm land in the area .surveyed did not prove very successful. Many of the ne­groes and Mexicans had no idea what land was worth and many of the owners failed to g·ive the correct :figures because they were· afraid that the data might be used for assessment purpol:les. The average price of land that changed hands during the past year in this section was $90.25 per acre. Five farms listed with one of the Austin real estate firms in the summer of 1916 ranged from $85 per acre for land a mile north of Elroy partly covered with flint, to $125 per acre for farms on Onion Creek or near the city limits. The average price for the five farms. 
Bulletin of the University of Texas 
was $104. One farmer in the heart of the Houston Clay district paid $105 per acre for his farm and an old "slave time" negro nearby refused $150 per acre for a certain field; this, however, is above what the whole farm would have sold for. Within a few miles of these two men farmers gave the value of their farms as low as $50 an acre ; $60 was a common figure for fand that was of the same soil and elevation. One landowner said, ~'My land would sell for $100 to $125 an acre; but it is not worth it when yield is taken into account.'' No doubt some of the high values given by some of the men are inflated, as is so much of the land value in the cotton belt of Texas. There was a tendency to say "about $75" or "around $125 "-round sums, --$100 an acre being mentioned most frequently. The European war in depressing cotton prices has affected the price of cot­ton land, and the whole matter is in an unsettled condition. 
The following table was prepared to show the correlation between the value of land and its productivity, irrespective of the types of soil. Negro owners and Mexicans are omitted be­cause the number that answered these questions is too small to be of value. 
TABLE VI 
VALUE OF LAND AND ITS PRODUCTIVITY 
Production of bales of cotton per acre 
Value of land per acre 
White owners 
White tenants Negro tenants 
--------------1----­
. 41 
.23
'$ 25-$ 50_ ------------------------------------­
.42 
.33 
.31
;:;t)-7~-------------------------------------­
.34 
.34 
.37
T:"-,... ir.o___ --------------"-------------------­
.4:? 
.40
10\')-125 ___----------------------------------­
.38 
.37 
.42
125-150 _______------------------------------­
.43 
.40 
.u
150-175 _______ ------------------------------­
As far as the owners are concerned, there seems to be no correlation between the yie-ld of cotton and value of land. The figures given by the tenants show that as the value of land goes up the production rises also, as one would expect. This gives the figures give-n by the tenants the appearance of correctness, for most tenants have no interest in the value of the land and are not tempted to undervalue it. 
Value and distance from town: Productivity remaining the same, land tends to decrease in value as the distance from the market and trading center increases. In this territory, Austin is easily the central trading place. It is the great market for cotton and cottonseed and farmers come to trade from the Cald­well county line, and even farther. 
To see whether distance from the market affects the value of land in this territory, all farms within one mile from Austin were listed and the average found of the values per acre and the production; then all farms between one and two miles, two and three miles, etc., until the whole area was covered. In a measure, the same objection as to the accuracy of estimated values holds in this case, but here the figures are not given by classes of farmers and the discrepancies tend to offset one an­other. There was a tendency to give the distance in round numbers, five, ten, and twelve miles predominating. To correct this the figures were grouped, two being put together, and the following diagram, made to show the facts in a graphic way. 

As the distance increases there is a tendency for the value of land to decrease, shown by the downward trend of the value 
Bulletin of the University of Texas 
curve (the solid line). The production curve (the dotted line), however, goes up and seems to arrest the downward tendency of the value curve and cause it to swing upward at about twelve miles from Austin. The rich black soil lying farther away from the city is more productive than the Austin clay and the minor soil areas nearer the city. The influence of other markets is also felt to some extent at a distance of sixteen or seventeen miles and emphasizes the influence of the increasing productivity on land prices. 
SooW;J, and Economic Survey of Southern Travis County 
PART II-THE PEOPLE 
CHAPTER v 
GROWTH OF RURAL POPULATION AND BIRTH PLACE OF FARMBRS 
GEO. S. WEHRWEIN 
The first .settlements in Travis County were made about 1836. After the capitol was located at Austin in 1839, settlers began to come in large numbers. By 1850 Travis County had a population of 2479, outside of the city of Austin. A very small part of the land was improved and under cultivation at this time. Stockraising was the chief occupation. Cotton wa.s raisec:l in small quantities soon after the first settlements were made, but the lack of transportation facilities prevented its extensive cultivation. By 1860 the rural population had increased to 4586, and by 1870 to 8725. Cotton and corn began to super­sede the cattle, and a relatively large proportion of the acreage was given over to cereals. 
In addition to the native Americans, Swedish and German settlers began to come into this area. The German center is near Del Valle and Coulton, and the Swedish near Elroy. (See map facing page 7.) In late years Mexicans have been moving into the county in ever increasing numbers and are dis­placing the whites and negroes as farm laborers and tenants. 
Taking Travis County as a whole, the United States census of 1910 gives it a rural population of 25,760 or 53.7 per cent of the total population. This is an increase of 532 or 2.5 per cent over 1900. Of this rural population 17,764 were whites and 7,995 negroes. Of the whites, 3,045 were foreign born. The rural foreign born Swedes numbered 753, Germans 611, English 47, Swiss 38, French 20, Danes 20, and Mexicans 1438. 
The area covered by the social and economic survey includes one complete commissioner's precinct and part of another. A part of the city of Austin lies in both precincts and the census figures cannot be used to get at the population of this territory. 
26 Bulletin of the University of Texas 
Careful estimates were made in each school district by thOllc making the school survey. According to these figures, there are ~31 white home owners, 18D white tenants, 87 negro owners, 311 negro tenants and laborers, 3 Mexican owners and 235 Mexican laborers and tenants in this area. Some of the school districts, however, lie on both sides of the railroad, which is really the boundary line of the district surveyed, and the figures are somewhat too large for the area covered. The surprising feature is the large number of negro and Mexican laborers and tenants, a great many of whom are not enumerated in the Social and Economic Survey. 
TABLE VII 
BIRTHPLACE OF 401 FARMERS IN THE AREA SURVEYED 
South-
North-
Foreign 
Travis 
ern 
ern 
Ger-
Mlscel-
Total 
County 
Texas 
States 
States 
Sweden 
many Mexico 
laneous 
White owners___ 
144 
48 
73 
M 
6 
2'Z 
11 --------7
White tenants___ 
110 
19 
70 
25 
2 
8 
4 --------1
Negro owners___ 
23 
13 
20 
3 
0 -------­
Negro tenants__ 
86 
43 
81 
7 
1 -------­
4 
0
9
Mexicans ------­
38 
0 ----------------29 --------­
Totals____ 
401 
127 
9 30 15 29 8
253 
60 
Of the four hundred and one farmers actually interviewed as to their nationality and birthplace 64 per cent were born in Texas and of those born in Texas 50 per cent were born in Travis County. Only 24 per cent of the Mexicans were born in Texas, while 87 per cent of the negro owners and 94 per cent of the negro tenants are Texas born. l\fore of the white tenants were born within the State than of the white owners, 64 per cent of the former and 51 per cent of the latter were born in Texas. 
Social and Economic Survey of S01dhern Travis County 27 TABLE VIII BIRTHPLACE OF 399 FARM WOMEN 
South-
North-
Foreign 
ern 
ern 
Ger-
Miscel-
Total 
Texas 
States 
States 
Sweden 
many 
Mexico 
laneous 
--------1--­
·white owners____________ 138 
73 
21 
10 
20 
8 -------­
6
White tenants__ __ _______ 113 
72 
24 6 
6 
3 -------­
2
Negro owners____________ 25 
23 
2 0 
N~ro tenants.__________ 86 
80 
5 1 
11
Mex!canB ----------------37 
1 -------­
----------------25 
•.rotals.___________ 399 
259 
63 17 26 ·11 25 
8 
Table VIII gives the same data for the farmer's wife. The two tables do not correspond exactly, because there were several cases of single men and women who were placed in these respec­tive tables, with no corr.esponding items in the other. Of the 399 farm women listed in the table 65 per c.ent were born in Texas. Of the negro women over 92 per cent were born in Texas but only 30 per cent of the Mexican women ar·e Texas born. 
The following table lists the States furnishing the largest num­ber of white farmers not born in 'l'exas: 
Tennessee .... ... .... .. . 14 men and 14 women 
Georgia  .. . . . ...... . .... . 13 men and  6 women  
Alabama  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7 men and  5 women  
Kentucky  . .. .'... ... ·. . . . .  4 men  ana  6 women  
Mississippi  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3 men and  6 women  
Louisiana  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4 women  

Fifty-three of the farmers were born in European countries or in Canada. Most of these have been in the country for some time. The shortest length of residence in the United States was reported as six years; the average was about eighteen years. Therefore, there has been very little European immigration into this area the past few years. The next chapter will deal more specifically with those parents who were born in foreign countries or out of the State. 
Bulletin of' the University of Texas 
CHAPTF,R VI 
BIRTHPLACE AND OCCUPATION OF PARENTS 
T. J. COFFEE 
In the investigation of the data obtained from the Survey, it was found that the information as to the fathers of the Mexicans and negroes was insuffieient to be of any value; and wh.at little data was available showed that almost all of the fathers of the Mexicans were born in Mexico, and that the large majority of the fatherS of the negroes were slaves, or born in Texas. There­fore, this study is confined to the white farmers. 
The purpose of the investigation is to determine to what extent there is a permanent tenant class in Texas, and also, whether the tenant class is due to an inferior stock or to local conditions. 
First of all, data have been compiled as to the .birthplace of the fathers of both owners and tenants, and also as to the fathers of the wives of owners and tenants. The purpose of these sta­tistics is to show to what extent the tenant class is of native and permanent stock ; and these figures are pertinent in determining whether the tenancy is due to a permanently inferior class, or to local conditions in Texas. The birthplace of the fathers of the husbands is more significant for this purpose; but the character of the stock of the wife's father is of equal importance with that of the husband in determining the stock of the future genera­tions, and properly has a place in the investigation. 
The other class of data included in the investigation is con­cerned with the occupation of the fathers of tenants and owners. This part of the study goes dfrectly to the question of whether the condition of tenancy passes down from father to son. How­€Ver, the occupation of the fathers of foreign birth was obtained for but a few, and there was considerable confusion in the data given: consequently the statistics as to fathers of foreign birth are omitted. Much of the confusion relative thereto arises from the different standards and customs abroad. 
Social and Economic Survey of Southern _Travis County 29 Birthplace of Fathers. 
The statistics relative to the birthplace of the fathers are shown in the following table : 
TABLE IX 
BffiTHPLACE OF THE FATHERS OF FARMERS AND FARMERS' WIVES 
Husband's  Father  Wife's  Father  
Total  · Owners  Tenants  Total  Owners I Tenantr  
"Texas -------------------------­Tennessee --------------------­·Georgia ----------------------­Other Southern States________ Northern States_______________ Germany ---------------------­Sweden -----------------------­Scotland ---------------------­Other foreign countries_______  25 28 20 45 3 36 35 69  1() 15 8 30 () 21 27 3 9  15 13 12 15 3 15 8 3 0  31 26 12 44 13 33 so 7 14  18 11 5 24 6 19 28 3 6.  13 lb 7 2() 7 14 7 4 8  

Of the fathers of white owners, the native born constituted 
51.2 per cent of the total, while the foreign born were 48.S per cent of the total. Of the fathers of white tenants, the native born were 69 per cent of the total while the foreign born were 31 per cent of the total. This shows a relative preponderance of foreign born fathers of owners, and of native born fathers of tenants. There was a total of 86 foreign born fathers, and 121 native born fathers, which brings out the importance of the above percentages. 
The comparison may be better brought out by the relative pro­portion of foreign born fathers whose sons are now tenants and owners. Of the sons of foreign born fathers 39.3 per cent are now tenants, and 60.7 per cent are owners. This shows a much !jmaller per cent of tenancy among the foreign born element than .among the native. 
The figures as to the different States of the United State~ show: (1) that only 10 out of 123 fathers of owners were bol'! in Texas, while 15 out of 84 fathers .of tenants were native. 'Texans. The numbers are too small to justify any final conclu­sion as to the general tendency in this respect; but if the figures :are taken at their face value, only 8.1 per cent of fathers of t>wners are born in Texas, while 17 .. 9 per cent of fathers of ten­
Bulletin of the University of Texas 
ants are born within this State. 'rhe figures for Georgia show about the same refative proportion as Texas. The other South­ern States taken together appear to have be-en the birthplace of 
36.6 per cent of the fathers of owners, and 331;3 per cent of the fathers of tenants, a favorable showing. Practically none of the fathers of white farmers were from the Northern States, there being none of the fathers of owners, and only three of the fathers of tenants. 
Of the foreign born, 27 out of a total of 35 Swedes were fathers of owners, which makes the number of fathers of foreign descent whose sons are owners so far in excess of native fathers, relatively. 
Of the tenant wives' fathers 13.7 per cent, of the fathers of owners' wives, 15.7 per cent were born in Texas. There were born in other Southern States 34.8 per cent of the fathers of owners' wives, and 57.8 per cent of the fathers of tenants' wives. Of the fathers of wives of owners, 44.3 per cent were of foreign birth, while of the fathers of wives of tenants, 34.7 were foreign born. As is the case of the fathers of the husbands, the pre­ponderance of foreign born fathers of owners is due to the Swed­ish element, 23 out of 30 of whom in the case of the fathers of 
wives are fathers of wives of owners. 
All of the above figures seem to indicate that there is some­thing in the local conditions of Texas that causes the large per cent of tenancy; and it is certain that it is associated with the native rather than the foreign-born stock. 
Occupation of Fathers. 
Coming to the consideration of the occupation of the fathers of the farmers studied, we find that out of the 66 fathers of owners who were farmers, 37 owned farms at death, as com­pared with 21 out of 64 fathers of tenants who owned farms at death, or 56.l per cent in the case of the owners, and 32.8 per cent in the case of tenants. Only 3 of the fathers of owners rented farms at their death, while S of the fathers of renters rented farms at their death. However, as to those still living, only 4 fathers of owners own farms, and 1 rents; while in the case of tenants, 6 fathers own farms, and 5 rent. These facts are shown in the following table: 
TABLE X 
THE OCCUPATIONS OF THE FATHERS OF NATIVE BIRTH, AND 'l'HE 
CHARACTER OF TENURE OF THOSE WHO WERE FARMERS 

Data as to Total 
Sold number 
owner-StillStillRented
Owne<! 
vtber of 
ship farmlivinglivingfarmfarm 
occupa­farmers 
·and 
not at
and
atat 
tlons
given deathrenter
owner
deathdeath 

WHITE OWNERS Fathers of husbands Fathers of wive•---­ 66 55  37 22  3 8  4 6  1 0  20 19  1 0  12 13  
TotaL___________ -------·  121  59  11  10  1  39  

WHITE TENANTS Fathers of husbands 64 
s
21 321 5
8 6 120Fathers of wives____ 55 15 
2 11
22 5 
TotaL--------------u;-1_4_3­
--2-3­--1-1­
--7­
~
--3­
20 
The statistics as to fathers of wives show about the same re­sults as in the case of husbands except that they show eight fathers of wives of owners who rented farms at death, and 15.fathers of wives of tenants. 
The above figures taken together show that a larger per cent of the fathers of owners were owners than were the fathers of tenants. In other words, that there is a tendency for the tenant to remain in the tenant class, and the owner in the owner class. The two classes of investigation substantiate each other in this respect. However, these statistics cannot be taken as showing conclusively that the tenant class is of inferior stock for the reason that the sons of owners may naturally be expected to have better opportunities for becoming owners than the sons of tenants. 
The data seem to indicate that either the native population constitutes the fixed element in the tenant class, or that the local conditions give rise to tenancy after the arrival of the farmers in Texas. 
3-S. 
CHAPTER VII 
AGE, MORTALITY, AND SIZE OF FAMILY* 
GEO. S. WEHRWEIN 
The Age of Farmers. For the purpose of this study, farmers between 18 and 21 years of age were placed in one group, 21-24 in another, and so on, always using a three-year interval. In this way it was found that among the white owners the group which contained the largest number (the modal group) is 39 to 42 years. For tenants, the modal group is 33 to 36 years; that is, more tenants were found whose ages fell in this age-group than in any other. For the negroes the modal group is 45-48 years for both owners and tenants; and 48-51 years for all Mexicans. The following diagram shows the number of white farmers in each age-group, represented by the oblongs extend­ing from either side of the age-group column. 
From the diagram it will be seen that the tenants as a class are younger than the owners. Over 37 per cent of the tenants are between the ages of 27 and 36, while over 35 per cent of the oWn.ers are between the ages of 39 and 51. This is due to the fact that many young men have to start farm operations as ten­ants, either for themselves or on the farm of their father, father­in-law, or other relative. As time goes on they accumulate enough funds to buy a farm or they acquire one from their parents. This transition seems to take place about the age of 35, for then the number of cases of tenants for each age-group grows steadily less and the numbers for the owners steadily larger. After the age of 45-50 both groups become smaller. Death and movement into other occupations account for a natural decrease. Many who have acquired some money now turn the farms over to their sons to operate either as owners or 11s tenants, which naturally 
decreases the number of owners above 50 and increases the 
:number of tenants in the earlier age-groups. 
•All tables and the diagram (except Table XIV) were worked out ',by the class in Statistics. 
AGE 114111ogs7  OF  WHITE  FARMERS 111 TENANTS 9  12 I 10 II 12. · ·  

While this difference in the ages of owners and tenants is true for the whites, it is not true for the negroes and Mexicans. The modal ag.e-group for both negro owners and tenants is 45-58 years. This shows that there is little tendency for negro tenants to pass into the owner-group. The high age for Mexican ten­
,~ 
FIGURE V 
ants, viz., 48-51, would indicate that they form an almost per­manent tenant class.* 
1l11Jrtality. Closely connected with the subject of age is that of the death rate. Sufficient data were gathered to enable the presentation of some conclusions concerning the frequency of deaths at different ages and the most common causes. 
•see Bulletin University of •rexas 39: 1915, "Studies in the Land Problem in Texas," p. 22, for further discussion of ages of tenants and owners. 
TABLE XI 
DEATHS PER FAMILY BY CLASSES OF FARMEHS AND BY AGE-GROUPS 
Per cent 
Per cent of all Number of tami-deaths of cases Class 
Total lies re-occurring Per cent of death families porting before 5 infantile perreporting deaths years deaths family 
--------------\-------------------­
White owners___________________________ _ 
96 35% 45% 36% 0.7 
Wbite tenants_____------______----______ _ 95 47 66 40 0.8 
Negro owners___________________ --------­
20 60 1\1 73 1.3 
Negro tenants__________________ ---------­
75 58 80 60 1.4 . Mexicans --------------------------------­
29 65 80 46 1.4 
A study of deaths and causes of death among the farmers in this region reveals some interesting facts. The white owners report the fewest deaths per family of any class. The Mexicans report about twice as many. Furthermore, there is a very much higher death rate among negro and Mexican children than among the white children; in the case of the former fully 80 per cent of the total deaths reported occur before the age of five years. The number of negro owners and Mexicans may be rather small for statistical comparison, but observation bears out the above data. There is a marked difference in mortality even be­tween the white owners and tenants, no doubt due to better homes and better care for the children. A comparison of the home and living conditions of these various classes easily ac­counts for these startling figures. 
TABLE XII 
NUMBER OF DEATHS, CLASSIFIED BY AGE AT TIME OF DEATH 
White White Negro NegroAges owners tenants owners tenants Mexicans 
---------------\---------------­
Infantile ---------------------------------25 32 19 66 19 
1 year_·-----------------------------------4 8 1 s b 
1-5 years----------------------------------15 14 1 14 9 Total --------------------------------__ 4_4_ --54---21---88----33-­6-10 years--------------------------------5 --6---0---5---1­10-20 years-------------------------------11 8 3 4 
4
2Q-30 years-------------------------------5 9 O 9 3
Over 30 years______ ______________________ 3 3 2 4 o 
Total -------------------------------· ~! -26 I 5 2'2 --8-­Grand total-------------------------68 SO 26 110 --l-1­
I I 
Table XII shows the ages at which deaths occurred as reported by the farmers interviewed. Some of the deaths were those of children who had left the farm. One negro reported the deaths of two sons who contracted tuberculosis while employed in the stockyards at Fort W or.th and who came home to die. One Swedish farmer lost all his family except one boy while living in Sweden and then migrated to this country largely on account of the climate. However, these cases are exceptional. 
Still birth was reported as the cause of death in 60 cases of infantile death, 56 reported the camie of death as "unknown," 17 said bowel trouble, 13 teething, 12 fever, 8 spasms, 7 malaria, 6 "bold hives," 6 meningitis, 6 croup, 6 typhoid, and 5 accident. Thirty-two other cases reported 18 scattering diseases. Of deaths occurring above five years of age, 17 died of consump­tion, 14 accidental, 12 typhoid, 7 unknown, 5 whooping cough, 34 reported 19 various other diseases. There are some discrep· ancies in these figures no doubt, because in many cases the cause of death is uncertain. Mexicans reported the most cases of "fever," but failed to state the specific type of fever. How­ever, the data show the general conditions as to health in this 
area. 
The Size of Fawilies. The size of the farm family is import­ant from the economic standpoint. The one-crop cotton farmer's success depends largely on his working force. The landlord in bargaining with a tenant will often inquire, "How much force have you got?'' and the tenant with the large family is the favored one. Women and children are as useful as men in the cotton fields in both ''chopping'' and picking times. In the picking season big stout men with stiff fingers and ''slow joints'' are actually at a disadvantage when compared with the more nimble women and children. It is often the case that the real head of the family acts only as a sort of overseer urging on the workers and doing the hauling and other heavy work. 
The limiting factor in cotton production is the amount that can be picked by one man. Were a man to try to support a family of five by raising cotton and use only his own labor, he would be limited to about 15 acres, yielding about six bales, which at lOc would yield only $235 for his three-fourths share. 
This does not begin to keep his family, especially under the one­crop system, where so little food is raised and the store bill for food and feed is large. What is done is to rent 40 acres or more instead of fifteen and the yield is trebled by the labor of the wife and children. 
TABLE XIII 
SIZE OF FAllHIN-.,..-'fOTAL NUMBER OF CHILDREN 
Number of ·Families With I White White Negro Negro 
owners tenants owners tenants Mexicans 
No children born_________________________  27  12  2  6  2  
12  child_---­__ ----------------------------· children­____---------­__________------·  17 10  12 16  2 l  11 8  1 0  
3  children_______-------­____---­__ ------·  12  9  1  7  4  
4  children___-­__ ------------------------.  15  15  3  5  6  
5 6  children_-----------------­__ ----------· children--­______---­__ ----------------.  11 7  8 9  l 2  7 5  5 2  
7 8  children------­__ ---­__ -----­__ ---­____. children_________---------­______------·  9 8  8 4  3 3  6 6  4 2  
910  children-------------------------------·children_______---­____________________,  3 6  5 6  0 2  6 6  1 3  
11  children-------------------------------·  2  1  2  3  1  
1213  children------------------------------·children_______-----­__________________.  5 1  3 0  1 0  3 3  3 0  
14  children-------------------------------·  0  .1  0  1  2  
15 children-------------------------------­No data as to number of children______,  0 10  1 5  0 2  3 2  2 11  

143 115 25 88 49
Totals -----------------------------­
Average number per familY--------­
4.25 4.72 6.22 5.93 6.94 
]from the ab<Ne table it will be noted that although the white owners are older as a class than the tenants, almost i9 per cent have no children at all, whereas about 12 per cent of the white tenants have no children. Only 30 per cent of the white owners have families larger than five children, while 38 per cent of the tenants have families of this size or over. In case of the negroes only 7.2 per cent were without children, and only 4 per cent of the Mexicans; over 50 per cent of the former and 68 per cent of the latter had families of over five children, and families with ten children or more are relatively much more common among these races than among the whites. 
The size of the family is, however, not the true indication of the actual working force of the farmer. The preceding table lists all the children born, whether dead or alive, away from home, or under age. The following table lists only those· above seven years of age. This age was chosen arbitrarily, but from this time on the child becomes of some use in helping with the chores or picking cotton, small though the service may be. It in­cludes those at school, because in the majority of cases they do not attend .in the pressing seasons of chopping and picking except where the farmer can dispense with their help. In the case of the negroes few children go to school at these times. W'hen the. season is over, however, the schools with but 10 pupils in the fall become crowded with 60 to 80 pupils. Mexicans are even more lax in school attendance. 
In some cases thes{l figures include grandchildren, when par­
ents are dead and the children live with their grandparents. 
The ages of those included range from seven years through man­
hood and womanhood. The latter is true where several grown 
sons and daughters were living with a mother. 
TABLE XIV 
NUMBER 01'' CHILDREN' A~.· HOME wno ARE ABOVE SEVEN 
White White Negro Negro 
owners 
tenants owners Mexicans·tenants 
T otal ~ases.•-----·---···-·-···--·····-·-· Families with no children at home••_•.  145 31  113 19  28 5  81 4  47 8  
Families with children all below 7 ····-·  21  23  2  10  7  
Number of families with 1 child····--· Number of families with 2 children____  23 26  18 13  2 2  17 6  4 3  
Number of families with 3 children....  3  15  2  11  8  
Number of families  with 4 children ....  13  8  5  14  7  
Number of families  with 5 children ....  11  5  2  12  7  
Number of families  with 6 chlldren-·· · 1  3  8  2  4  4  
Number of families with 7 children ....  1  4  1  2  s  

In addition to the above, there was one white owner with a family of eight children, one negro family among the tenants with nine children, and two Mexican families with eleven children, all of working age. In many cases, nieces, nephews, relatives by mar­riage, were living on the farm bearing practically the same rela­tion to the family as children working for their "keep." Among the white owners there were five relatives of this class, 12 among the white tenants, 5 among negro owners, 24 among negro ten­ants, and 4 among the Mexicans. Tenants of all clasRes had a larger number of such relatives than the owners. but the negroes had the largest number in proportion to the total farms reported_ 
In Table XIII were shown the families with no children at all; Table XIV lists the families with no children at home, and it is noticeable that 20 per cent of the white owners and a like per cent of the negro owners had no children at home. The num­ber of negro owners, however, is so small that little reliance can be put on percentages. Almost 17 per cent of the white tenants and only 5 per cent of the negro tenants fall in this class. 
Over 14 per cent of the white owners had children at home, but all were below seven years. In the case of the tenants the percentage is 20, due no doubt to the fact that the tenants were younger men than the owners. Only 11 per cent of the negro tenants had children of non-economic age. Summing up-these classes, 33.5 per cent of the white owners had no help from their children, 37 per cent of the tenants, 30 per cent of the negro owners; but only 16 per cent of the negro tenants, and 21 per cent of the Mexicans were so situated. 
Thirty-one per cent of the white owners had the help of more thaJ). two children, 56 per cent of the white tenants, 53 per cent of the negro owners, 55 per cent of the negro tenants, and 64 per cent of the Mexicans. The most comm-On, or modal, family of children of laboring age for the white owners was two children, for tenants one child, but families with three working children were almost as numerous. Among negro owners, families of five working children were most numerous; among negro tenants :families of one child predominate but families of three, four and five children were common. Among the Mexicans ,families ·Of three, four and five were most numerous, but the families of six, seven and eight working children and more were relatively more common among this class than any other. 
CHAPTER VIII 
OCCUPATIONS OF CHILDREN AFTER LEAVING THE FA.RM 
GEO. S. WEHRWEIN 
It is a common impression that the majority of farm boys and girls leave the farm to go into cities to take up non-agricultural occupations. A.n attempt was made to get information on this point in this survey. The data, however, are not entirely com­plete or accurate. Many of the farmers questioned were young men with no grown children and hence could give no informa­tion bearing on this subject. 
TABLE XV 
CHILDREN OF 420 FARMERS 
Families with Fam!lies 
Families children 
Total Class 
with awaywith no 
number children 
Total 
children from 
chfldren (born) 
living home away 
--------------1------------­
114 42 
143 Whlte tenants___________ ----------------­
143 
27
White owners--------------------------­
12 100 34 !l3
1J5
Negro owners___________ ------___________ 
25 
172 22 7
Negro tenants___ ----_____________ ----___ _ 
47 Mexicans _________ ----------------------­
6 81 13
88 
-15 -­Totals ------------------------------­
49 2 42 5 
420 49 315 
359 101 
The first table gives general information as to the children of the 420 farmers who gave information on this subject. Out of the 359 families with Jiving children 101, or 28 per cent, had childr·en away from home. 
TABLE XVI 
OCCUPATIONS OF BOYS WHO HAVE LEFT THE FARM 
Class 
owners_______
White tenants_______White
Negroes__________
All All 
Mex!caris________ 
Totals ---------­
Farmers 45 
·~ 
23 11 
122 
Profes­slons 
4 0 1 0 
5 
Slrilled laborer 
7 5 0 0 
12 
Un­skilled laborer 
2 5 4 3 
14 
Mer­cantfle 
6 
1 
0 0 
7 
Other occupa-Mlscel-Total 
tlons laneous 
5  6  75  
4  8  66  
0  2  RO  
0  0  14  

9 16 
18!\ 
The classification of the occupations of these children away from home offered some difficulties. In the table giving the occupations of the boys, the "professions" include doctors, law­yers, preachers, and teachers. All occupations that rank with carpenter or mechanic are classified under ''skilled laborers.'' "Mercantile" includes three merchants, a collector, a book­keeper, and a clerk. Under ''others'' are listed postoffice em­ployees, some employed at the Confederate Home, etc. Under ''miscellaneous,'' those at school or not giving specific occupa­tions. 
TABLE XVII 
OCCUPATIONS OF GIRLS WHO HAVE LEFT HOME 
-
Married
Married 
Married 
Miscel-
Total
to 
to non­
(no desig-
Others
Teachers 
nation) 
laneous
farmers 
farmers 

owners_______
White 
21 
6 
5 
68
4 
28 
4
tenants______White 
1 
4 
29
18 
1
0
All Negroes__________ ]~ 5 
4 
33
3 
13 
1 
0
Mexicans________
All 
0 
1
0 





·-0 10
1 
0 
Totals 
6 11 
9 
131
59
38 I s 
Table XVII shows the occupations of the girls away from home. The schedules were very indefinite in regard to the marriage of farm girls; only a few designated whether the hus­band was a farmer or not, but while 38 married farmers only 8 were married to non-farmers. It is safe to say that a large number of those that are listed as merely "married" are the wives of farmers. "Miscellaneous" includes those at school and the cases where no occupation was mentioned. Under the term "others" are included a doctor, a shorthand teacher, a stenog­rapher, and a nurse. For the negroes this term includes three servants and a seamstress. Very few are engaged in gainful occupations. 
Taking the data presented in these two tables, it must be concluded that there has been no great exodus of young people to the city. Out of the 185 young men whose record was ob­tained 122, or 72 per cent, became farmers. Of the 141 white boys 88, or 62 per cent, remained on the farm. Sixty-five per cent of the sons of white tenants followed their fathers' footsteps, but only 60 per cent of the sons of white owners did so. Perhaps the fact that it is harder for tenants' sons to get higher education because of financial difficulties aooounts for the larger number that remain farmers. 
CHAPTER IX 
LITERACY, EDUCATION, AND READING OF TRAVIS COUN'l'Y FARMERS 
GEO. S. WEHRWEIN 
Literacy and Education. The following table shows the num­ber of farmers who were illiterate, the number who received some education, together with the extent to which such education was carried. So few negro owners gave information on the mat­ter that for the purpose of this study they were grouped with the tenants. There is very little difference in the education received by the negro owners and the tenants. But few have attended a college, and it is doubtful if the one who reported attendance at a business college was actually in attendance. 
TABLE XVIII* 
LITERACY AND EDUCATION OF FARMERS AND FARM WOMEN 
I 
White tenants'White owners Negroes Mexicans 
___________,_M_en ,Wom':'.1-Men Women Men Women Men Women 
Illiterate ------------------------5 [ 2 1 3 31 23 9 18
Read and write only_____________ 18 · • 13 15 10 32 15 23 gCommon scllooL_______"_________ 68 n 75 79 47 51 3 1 Business college__________________ 1 0 2 1 1 0 0 0 
High scbooL.....-----------------9 15 30 28 2 6 0 O 
University or college________ __ ___ 2 2 H 10 2 4 0 O 
1 
Totals........---------------J:03iJ:04137--;:;-Us---W35--;g 

Comparing white tenants with white owners, it is very notice­able that there is a larger per cent of illiteracy among the ten­ants than among the owners. Four per cent of the men and 1.9 per cent of the women could not read and write. The women, however, are as well educated as those in the white owner class. Only 8 per cent of the men and 15 per cent of the women out of the tenant families reached the high school, while 22 per cent of the men and 21 per cent of the women of the owner class ad­
*Worked out by the class in Statistics. 
vanced as far as this. Sixty-six per cent of the men and 69 per cent of the women in the tenant group had a common school education. For the owners, these figures are 55 per cent for the men and 60 per cent for the women, a smaller per cent because so many more went on to higher schools. 
Among the negroes 27 per cent of the men could not read and write, and 23 per cent of the women. Some 29 per cent of the men and 15 per cent of the women could read and write but no more, and the number that reported high school attendance or better is very small. This lack of education makes the negro in­efficient as a business man. A negro cropper's wife reported that when the crop was gathered the storekeeper took out his share, the landlord his half and the rest was turned over to her husband. ''Don't you ever sit down and figure out how much you raised and how much is your share?" she was asked. "No, the boys can add up the dollars all right but they can't work out the cents,'' was the reply. It is only honesty on the part of the white man and not any knowledge of business transactions that will prevent the negro from being cheated. The banker, mer­chant, and everyone else has the same opportunity to take ad­
vantage of his ignorance and extravagance. 
The Mexican is at a still greater disadvantage, because he does 
not know Englfah and even in Spanish his education is but mea­
ger. Illiteracy is quite high among them ; 25 per cent of the 
men and 54 per cent of the women reported that they could not 
read and write. Of the men 66 per cent reported that they could 
read and write a little, most of these only Spanish. Thirty-two 
per cent of the women were in this class, while almost two-thirds 
of them fall in a lower rank. Few Mexicans ever went to school 
in Texas, and none of them reported schools higher than the 
common school. 
If education makes for efficiency in farming, the white owners 
are superior to the tenants or the other races. 'fhe figures are 
all the more significant if the fact is taken into account that some 
twenty tenants are exceptional cases; part are you:p.g men with 
some education, who are running their fathers' farms, and these 
really bring up the average for the tenants. It is difficult to de­
cide whether the better education of the owners is due to supe­
rior native ability or to the fact that they were the sons of men who had land and capital and therefore the means to give their children this extra advantage. It is merely another case of giv­ing "to him that hath." 
Papers and Magazines Read. In order to compare the self-­education of the various classes of farmers as represented by the reading of papers, magazines, and books, questions were asked as to the books and papers read during the year and periodicals subscribed for. In all of the following tables it is necessary to remember that they reprt'sent the reading of the family as a unit rather than that of the parents as individuals. In the case of books, however, the parents answered for themselves in many cases rather than for the family. 
TABLE XIX 
PAPERS AND MAGo\.ZI1'""ES READ BY VARIOUS CLASSES 
_____ci_a_ss____ 
White owners_________________ White tenants_______________ Negro owners________________ Negro tenants_______________ 
Mexicans -------------------­
Totals -----------------­
Total number of each class reading 
None _1___2___3___4_ _L_6___7_ -~--J~ 
3 18 43 28 19 11 8 5 1 13 :i 34 26 18 13 7 2 1 2 7 3 5 6 6 1 0 O O 0 2 32 27 18 3 3 0 0 O 0 0 12 25 4 2 O 0 0 O 0 0 
52 109 97 57 36 18 10 6 22 
In the above table all papers reported as ''Swedish papers,'' or "German papers" are put in the "Indefinite" column. In many cases the number read by farmers of this class was so large that all of them were not reported, the investigator merely put­ting ''etc.'' after enumerating five or six. One woman said that she read fifteen or sixteen magazines which she obtained from hr~ sister at the University. The number reading an "indefinite" number of papers is especially large among the white owners. 
l\fore white owner families read two magazines or papers than any other number, although the number of those reading three and four exceeds the number reading only one. The number of periodicals most frequently read by white tenants is one maga­zine or paper. The number of those reading two or three is considerably less. Among the negroes and Mexicans the num­ber reading none at all is very high and very fe-w read more than one or two. These :figures correspond very closely with the literacy and education of the respective classes. 
In order to approximate what might be called expenditure for papers and magazines the number and names of those sub­scribed for were obtained. 
TABLE xx 
PAPERS AND MAGAZINES SUBSCRIBED FOR, BY CLASSES 
TotaL number of each class subscribing for 
None 
-1 ­
Class 
-
25 
9
White owners-­
White tenants. 
29 
28 
Negro owners__ 
0 
6 
Negro tenants__ 
22
42 
Mexicans -----­
23 
12 
103· 
93
Totals ----­
--2 
39 
w 
6 14 4 
89 
--3 
4 
29 
20 
17 .. 
3 
0
3 
1 
3 
2 
0 
52 
26 
--7 
--5 
--6 
10  7  3  
5  2  0  
0  0  0  
0  0  0  
0  0  0  

915 3 108 
--9 -­
1  0  0  
0  1  1  
0  0  0  
0  0  0  
0  0  0  

11 1 
I nd. 
11 0 0 0 0 
11 
A smaller number actually subscribe for the magazines and pap€rs that they read. Many periodicals are borrowed from neighbors, received gratis, or bought at the news stands in town. In these cases it is reasonable to suppose that few actually read a full year's numbers of any periodical, which they would do were they bona :fide subscribers. However, the two tables cor­respond as to the relative interest taken in literature of this type. Few white owners are without some magazine or paper and a number subscribing for 3 or 4 is quite high. Considerably more of the white tenants do not subscribe, but there were two families that reported subscriptions to 9 and 10 periodicals, re­spectively. Negroes and Mexicans as a rule do not subscribe. 
It is rather di.fficult to classify the papers and magazines men­tioned by the farmers. Farm papei·s are not of equal value but it is hardly possible to make sub-classes here. The same is true of women's magazines. 
In the following table by "cheap magazines" is meant such as the ''Argosy''; ''cheap'' papers such as ''Comfort,'' and both terms· include a few papers incapable of classification. In the :first column it will noted that there are 164 white owner s11b­scribers to Austin papers. Some take both of the dailies, so that there are really fewer than 164 people subscribing to Austin papers. Tha figure, however, does show that these papers had a combined subscription list of 164. 
'rABLE xxI 
PAPERS AND MAGAZINES SUBSCRIBED l''OH 
White owners __________ --___ 
White tenants--------~-----­
Negro owners________________ 
Negro tenants_______________ 
Mexicans ------------------­
k 
"' 
<1"'
-ci.
...,., 
gj,::i. < 
164 99 18 37 5 
j

{;)=a
,S>0 
-0 ­
19 5 3 3 1 
-"'i'!
§J., 
s"'"
o"
~"' 
59 43 3 7 0 
s"'" Ii<""'" 
.... ~ 
52 42 7 17 0 
"' 
" 0
... 
~ 
--~ 
9 9 2 
2 
0 
.."' 
0 
"" 
..:I 
3 6 0 0 0 
gJ 
.,,
" 
'g " ~ 
gs 
14 15 0 
1 
0 
gj 
" 
"" 
"'""" 
"" 
~s 
0 
8 15 0 2 0 
..~ """' ..­
'g~
!l I< 
00 
4 
10 3 0 0 

"'"' ~ 
""' 
"'"
-""' 
0 11 
10 6 5 0 
Twelve white owners and four white tenant.s reported Ger­man papers; 20 white owners and 6 white tenants reported Swedish papers; 2 owners reported Scotch papers, and one, Ital­ian papers. 'l'wenty-six Mexicans reported Spanish papers printed in Mexico or Texas. Three cases of childrens' papers were found, one for each class of white owners and tenants, a:nd negro owners. The number of religious and lodge papers seems very low, for these papers are common in most homes. In many cases these were taken for granted and not mentioned to the investigator. 
There seems to be very little difference in the types of papers and magazines read by the various classes except as race and previous training determine this. Good papers and magazines are by far the most numerous. The number of daily papers read seems unusually high, but the subscription lists of the Austin papers substantiate the figures given here. Many of the cheap papers are sent gratis and in many cases were not men­tioned at all, but in some cases these furnish the only reading available. 
Books Read. Of the 118 white owners answering the ques­tion 75 per cent reported that they read books; of the 89 white tenants only 55 per cent read books; of the 15 negro owners, 66 per cent; 65 negro tenants, 54 per cent; and of the 27 Mex­icans only 34 per cent read books. 
The names of the books read during the year were classified and tabulated in Table XXII. The ''better" novels include such books .as "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine," 0. Henry's stories, etc. 
In this case the farmer or his wife answered as individuals rather than for the whole family, and so the table really rep­resents the types of books read by the adult members of the families. 
TABLE XXII 
NUMBER OF FARMERS READING VARIOUS TYPES OF BOOKS 
Olaes of books  White owners. --­13 9 5 4 17 24 11 2 3 1 1 1 0 White Negro tenants. owners. -----­9 5 8 3 3 0 2 0 5 2 *10 1 *7 4 0 1 <) 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 s Negro tenants. -­·-29 8 44 0 0 4 11 1 0 0 0 0 2  Mex!­cans. --­2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0  
Bible ------------------------------------­Rellil'lomt --------------------------------­History, science, .etc ____________________ _ Olassles and poetrY---------------------­The better novels________________________~ Oheaper novels ___________________________ School and ehlldren's-------------------­U. S. Government and agrlculturaL.•• Foreign books---------------------------­German ---------------------------------­Swedish ---------------------------------­Italian ----------------------------------­Miscellaneous ---------------------------­ 

*Plus 9 put down as novels or story. Impossible to classify. 
The figures in this table do not give the proper idea of the number of books re.ad. Several said that they could not name all the books read during the year, four said they ''read every­thing." Others said that they "read Dicken 's works," "Kip­ling's works,'' ''books on farming,'' ''school library books,'' ''German books,'' etc. All of these terms give no idea of the actual number of books read. 
Six said they had no time for reading; two said they did not read because of poor eyes, while in several cases parents :for­bade children to read books. 
Many of the books reported by negroes were subscription books and hard to classify. Among those mentioned were "Ne-
4-S. 
gro Literature,'' ''Cook's Explorations,'' ''Galveston Horror,'' 4 'The Colored American," "Beauty and Duty for Young Folks.'' 
It is somewhat surprising to note the small number of read­ers of the Bible among the whites. A comparison with the chapter on churches and church activities will show that there is .a discrepancy which can only be explained by the fact that the people took for granted that the Bible was read and so merely enumerated the other books. The Bible was mentioned most frequently by people who did not mention any other books. 
CHAPTER x 
CIVIC AND POLITICAL LIFE 
GEO. S. WEHRWEIN 
Questions of a civic and political character were not answered as fully as those pertaining to the farm. In many cases when women or the children gave information, their knowledge of the opinions of the head of the family was limited. They perhaps knew whether he paid his poll tax or not, but were not so cer­tain on other points. In the first table the average number of each class answering the various questions is shown in the first column. 
Whether Qr not a man pays the poll tax of $l.75 required by the State of every man who wishes to vote, may be consid­ered a test of his interest in the civic and political life of his community and State. In the territory covered by this sur­vey a comparatively high percentage of the owners, both negro and whiti, had paid their poll tax, the negro tenants and Mex­icians reporting the smallest number. 
TABf;E XXIII 
CIVIC AND POLITICAL LIFE 

...
..!. . .. 
.,
;,
6 
..
$Ii 
,.:. IE 
.ci,..
a.• 
'S
p., 
ij§
'O 
:E
a& 
" 
Os
p. .; 
..
... ~ 
1i 
rn 
:E
~: 
~~ 
.; 
0
" "b.O 
.,.;,:
'3 
. 0 ., 
I» 
... 
al~
~~ 
... 
p.
..::+>
..;:::" 
:a 
0 ..
.Cl+' 
...
:S~
"""'
b.0<1> . 
p. 

]i~
! 
+' 
.. 
...
... "' 
~ ~ 
4,)+; 
";; 
p. d
ea:~ 
od 
'O ~,.!Ill
.s ~ 
+' .. 
......
3 
~o
,,_
.... 
11.1,e .E
o.,
""­
0 .. 
o.S!
o.::
0
~~£! 
.."" 
p. ·­
p.­
!).. 
r.. +' 
ll1 +' +'
z+>
< +' 
--t> 
ll1"' 
t> " 
4.8%80.1% 
14 .8% 
0.9% 
4.2o/. 
108 
88% 
66.6o/.
93% 
26%
White ownerB--------------­
White tenants_______________ 
2.3 
82.6 
7.3 
!\.! 
63.0
97 
83 
78 
1.8 
12 
owners____________ ___ 
75 
0 
25 .0 
70.0 
5.0 
48.0
17 
98 
0 
19
Negro 
tenants_______________ 
53 
0 
5.5 
85.0 
II.! 
41.0
81 
1.3
Negro 
60 
11 
60.0 
23 .0 
50.0
17 
44 
44 
0 
0 
17.0 
15
Mexicans ------------------­
As to voting, the whites vote more regularly than the other races. Only 4.5 per cent of the owners reported that they never voted at all, while 18.5 per cent of the negro owners had never 
Bulletin of the University of Texas 
exercised the right of suffrage. Fifteen and five-tenths per cent of the white tenants had never voted, 36 per cent of the negro tenants, and 50 per cent of the Mexicans. Two of the Mexicans said that they clid not vote ''because the election clerk did not like Mexicans.'' 
The Democratic party is the party of the whites, the Re­publican that of the negroes though there are exceptions. More white owners are Republicans than white tenants. 
The division on party lines of the two races dates back to the war and reconstr"Uction days. One farmer, a Confederate vet­eran, related how he was forced to take the oath of allegiance in Texas, although he had taken it back in Tennessee. He marched up to the desk between two lines of negro soldiers with drawn bayonets. Here the oath was administered by a ''carpet bagger seated on the same bench with a nigger.'' The memory of this event was so strong with him that he "never scratched the Democratic ticket or rented to any but white men.'' Very few vote any but their regular tickets, the owner more so than the tenants. The Mexicans are not affiiliated with any party to the extent the other races are. 
As to prohibition, the majority of the whites favor prohibi­tion, the negroes do not, while the Mexicans are about evenly divided. The territory surveyed is ''dry'' and no saloons are found south of the Colorado, except in South Austin. 
In the next table the information obtained was still more lim­ited. Here the women could answer very little, and where the men were interviewed they often gave indirect answers or said, ''I haven't thought about it,'' or ''I'm not posted.'' 
The questions asked were: 
(1)  "Do you think  we  generally get efficient State officers  
and legislators?''  
(2)  "Do you think the Federal government should do more  
in the way of regulating railways, prices, etc.?''  
(3)  "Would you  favor  a  change in  our  system  of  taxa­ 
tion?"  
( 4)  "Are you in favor of issuing bonds for roads?"  

TABLE XXIV 
OPINIONS ON CIVIC AND ECONOMIC QUESTIONS -
owners_________ ___
Wblte 
tenants____________
Wblte 
Negroes -----------------­
Mexicans ---------------­
Change In
Efficient 
Federal 
taxation.
officials. 
regulation. 
No. an-•Percent 
No. ·an-
Percent
No. an-
Percent 
yes. yes. swerlngswerlng swerlnt yes. 
-­-­- .- ---­ 
90  81%  63  58%  73  
80  67  51  47  00  
41  80  24  44  44  
9  100  1  0  9  

62% 
53 
70 
66 
Bonds for 
roads. 
No. an­
swerlng 
107 83 50 11 
Percent 
yes. 
66% 
72 fi() 
100 
The number answering these questions varied so much that the figures for each question were placed in the tabl.e. Negro owners and tenants are classed together because in most cases the number of negro own·ers answering the questions was so small that percentages would be misleading. The figures for the Mexicans illustrate this danger. 
As a rule the number in favor of these questions exceeded those opposed. Two white tenants expressed themselves in favor of State regulation of railroads not Federal. 
The question on taxation brought interesting side-lights. In several cases the investigators were asked whether the material would be used for assessment purposes and in several cases in­formation was refused because this was feared. Many said taxes were too high (thirteen white owners, four white tenants, five negro owners, and seven negro tenants) . It may be that many of those that answered this question had this in mind rather than a change in the system. Only a few g-ave any suggestions as to the change they desired. One white owner. and three white tenants wanted a higher tax on land. 
Bonds for road building seemed to meet with general approval, but there was considerable criticism as to the manner in which money had been expended. Those who lived some distance from the San Antonio Post Road said that too much had been spent on this highway and not enough on the roads in their neighborhood. Several said they were heartily in favor of good roads "if the tax money was put on the roads." 
On the whole, the observer gets the impression that the farm­ers of Travis County are not much affected by radical social thought. A large percentage did not know what socialism is­sometimes thinking that it has something to do with sociables. Hardly a trace was found of the "Land League" or "Renters 
Union.'' 
CHAPTER XI 
SOCIAL LIFE 
GEO. S. WElIR\VEIN 
''Making money'' i-s not the only test of the desirability of any community as a place to live. The kind of social life it af­fords, the kind of roads, schools, and churches it has, count as much, if not more. If the neighborhood serves only as a place to make money, people will move to town or some other place where there are desirable neighbors, sociability, proper recrea­tion, and religious and educational advantages. Much of the migration of middle aged farmers to the towns is prompted by the desire to educate the children and give the family social ad­vantages lacking in the country. 
Three races living in the same territory means a lack of unity and homogeneity that makes :for retarded civilization. One case was reported in Which an American woman married a Mexican. The woman was ostracized. She reported no entertainment, DO' visiting with town folks or receiving visits from these. A few neighbors visited sometimes. This incident shows the wide gulf between the three races. With the increase of the Mexi­can population matters are steadily growing worse. ''Mexi­cans and negroes have come into the land and ruined the social life," said one woman. A white owner's wife said, "Social life is growing less desirable. More and more M~xicans and negroes are on the roads. If a :few more come we will not :feel safe any­more and have to move. Negroes and Mexicans kill the social life of the community." "We have no more free-for-all bar­becues, picnics, old-time camp meetings, etc.", said another white owner, and this same statement was made by several others. One added that, "too much of the land was owned by city people who had nothing but negro and Mexican renters.'• Even some of the large landovl'ners living in the country are renting to negroes and Mexicans almost entirely, but they have the means to go to Austin :for their recreation and social life_ 
The following map shows how the three races are mixed in a small section of the territory surveyed : 
MAP SHOWING THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE THREE RACES 
0 0 ()  I'•I I i • 0 •• • • • () ••• () (9_______ ~~--~­-·---<>-'~-_L • 0 0 •  
•• 0 WHITE FARMER • N~GRO F.ARMl!R  
• C> MEXICAN FARMER D WHITE SCt'OOL  
• NEGRO SC.HOOL.  
0 o•O 0 a o·'-..::.1--­-ROAD ---LANE.  
() fMILL  

FIGURE VT 
Among the whites there are further divisions along the lines of nationality. The native Americans do not associate a great deal with the Germans and Swedes. The people of these two foreign races are thrown together by their language and na­tional customs, many of which are distasteful to the native Americans and are often considered immoral. The customs of the Germans in regard to liquor and dancing caused one man to refer to them as the ''carousing Germans,'' with whom he .associated but little. 
Am.aunt of Social Intercourse. In answer to the question, "Is there enough social life?", 51 per cent of the 123 iwhite -owners answering this question said ''yes.'' Only 37 per cent -0f the white tennants answered in the affirmative. The Mex­icans as a rule did not answer this question, largely because they did not understand it. Of those that did answer it only 20 per cent said there was enough social life. The negroes were bet­ter satisfied in this respect, 48 per cent of the owners and 55 per cent of the tenants reporting sufficient community life. 
Visiting. Sociability may by measured in the frequency with which neighbors visit and in the socal visits made with friends in neighboring villages and city. Table XXV shows the visiting among farmers. 
TABLE XXV 
VISITING AMONG FARMERS 
Total  Per cent.  Per cent.  Per cent.  
answering.  Freqµent  Rare.  Never.  
White owners-------------------------------­White tenants------------------------------­Negro owners-------------------------------­Negro tenants------------------------------­Mexicans ----------------------------------­ 120 111 23 77 29  60 86 56 64 Z7  40.0 5fl.5 44.0 84.7 66.0  0 4.5 0 1.3 17.0  

From the table it will be noticed that the Mexicans visit the least of the three classes. From what has been said, this might be expected. 'l'he negroes as a class visit a great deal and the few cases which reported little visiting were those living more or less isolated and who therefore could not visit very often. Among the whites the owners appear to be the more sociable. With longer residence and time to get acquainted, this would be true of the tenants also. However, in many cases there is a social apathy which accounts for the self-isolation of some families. One tenant said he had been on the farm for eleven months and during this time ''never left it or even went to Aus­tin.~' Another said he rarely ever visited neighbors, that ''only a few families go together." Others visit only when their neighbors are sick. "Our neighborhood is not neighborly. Only kin folks visit.'' One negro said that frequent visiting was not desirable: ''Few visits make long friends.'' 
A test of feeling of friendliness between the city and village folks and the country people may be found in part in the amount of social visiting between the rural and urban people. 
TABLE XXVI 
AMOUNT OF VISITING BETWEEN VILLAGE AND RURAL PEOPLE 

Visits made to villages. 
Total. 
62
White owners-----------­
White tenants_____ ------­
47 
Negroes 
80 
19
Mexicans ----------------­
I 
Perc.ent 
None. 

~3.0 
23.0 
18.5 
16.0 
Percent 
Some. 

37 58 
Percent Fre­quently 
40.0 
19.0 
59 22.5 63 21.0
I 

Visits received from vlllages. 
Total. 
54 
35 
54 
10 
Percent 
None. 
8 43 15 70 
Percent 
Some. 

59 46 72 
30 
Percent 
Fre­
quently 

33 
11 
13 0 
Table XXVI gives some idea of the amount of visiting carried on between the farmers' families and the people living in villages. The term village is rather loose but the people an.swering no doubt meant places of the size of Elroy, Creedmoor, and Man­chaca. The white owners visit more frequently with the villagt: people and receive village visitors more than any of the others 
TABLE XXVII 
AMOUNT OF VISITING BETWEEN CITY AND RURAL -PEOPLE 
Visits made to city. 
Visits received from city. 
-
white owners_____________ 
White tenants____________ Negroes -----------------· 
Mexicans ----------------­
Total. 
145 SS 105 32 
\Percent 
Xone. 
5.5 
13 .0 
16.0 
37.5 
\Percent
Percent Fre· Some. quently 
45,~ 
39 48.0 49 35.0 ro I 12.5 
Total. 
133 
89 
99 29 
Percent 
None. 

16.0 
40.5 
27 .0 

62 .0 


Percent 
Some. 

65 46 67 38 
Percent Fre· quently 
19.0 
13.5 
6.0 
0.0 
Table XXVII shows the same facts in regard to city visiting. A great many more of each class visit with city friends than with those living in villages. The villages are too small. A larger per cent of each class visit more frequently with the city people than they do with those in the villages. However, about the same relation is found between the classes in both tables, the white owners having the most frequent social intercourse, the white tenants less, and the Mexicans the least. 
Table XXVIII shows the reasons for going to the vilages or cities. The :figures are not entirely representative, for only a rather small number of each class of farmers answered this part of the schedule, yet they offer a basis for comparisons. 
TABLE XXVIII 
REASONS GIVEN FOR VISITS TO VILLAGES AND CITY BY 198 FARMERS 
White owners_____ ----------------------­White tenants______ ---------------------­Negroes --------------------------------__ Mexicans --------------------------------· 
Tetal -------------------------------­
Total 
66 78 44 10 
198 
Business 56.0% 
56.5 
66.0 
80.0 59.0% 
Pleasures Relatives Friends 
23.0%  13.5%  7.5%  
16.5  18.0  9.0  
25.() 10.0  4.5 10.0  4.5 0.0  

21.0o/. 13.03 7.0% 
About 60 per cent of the visits made to town were for pure business; pleasure 20 per cent, and social visits with friends and relatives the other 20 per cent. The whites make more social visits than the other two classes. Fewer tenants go to town for pleasure than white owners or even negroes, the Mexicans least of all. Not many gave definite reasons for not having more social intercourse with the city folks. Eleven said they were unacquainted or had no friends in town, and this is per.haps the chief reason. Eight said that there was a social distinction, that city folks were "stuck up" and snobbish and did not care to associate with country people. Nineteen said that they were "too busy;" seven said they lived too far from town; and four gave poor roads as their reason. Three said it was not customary to visit with city folks, and one man said he was too poor. 
As for coming to town for business purposes, it would seem that every farmer comes at some time or other during the year. Saturday finds the streets of Austin crowded with coun­try people in town doing their trading or selling produce. 
The direct testimony of the people themselves and the tables showing the visits with neighbors and city people all go to show that this area is lacking in social life and neighborliness. What are the reasons for this lack of wholesome community life~ The most apparent reason of course is the fact that three distinct races live intermingled in the same territory and the barrier of race and color keeps them apart socially. Nationality lines may not be drawn so tightly, yet they induce a spirit of clannishness among the whites. Some families are not friendly because of per­sonal dislike and quarrels; others are not considered desirable neighbors because of their previous history or their "manner of carrying on," as one negro woman put it. No statistical tabula­tion is feasible of causes of this kind which are traits of many a community. However, an attempt was made to ascertain whether people thought that there were ''social classes'' in the country and what they considered the basis for such social inequality other than the reasons mentioned. 
The questions asked to bring out these points were as follows : 
''Any sociai inequalities or classes Y What basis Y Wealth, education, tenant vs. owner, religion, others.'' Following is· the table based on the answers to these questions: 
TABLE XXIX 
BASIS OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY 
Is there social 
inequality? 

Bases of social inequality 
Total Tenant 
answer-
Answer-vs. 
Religion
Wealth 
Educa-Others 
ing 
tog yes 
owner 
tlon 
bite owners ___ ____ 
w ~ 
4.53 
4.53 
3.53 
3.5%
243 3.53
bite tenants_______
w 
76 
31 
10.5 
14.5 
2.5 
2.5 
5.0 Negroes -----------­
11.0 
44 25 
4.5 
4.5 
4.5 
9.0 
Mexicans 28 
14.0 
0.0 
0 .0 
7 14.0 
0.0 
The number answering the question as to the existence of social inequality is small and those giving reasons for such inequality is even less. Only 44 whites and 19 negroes and Mex­icans mentioned the basis of social inequality. A comparison between these various classes shows that the tenants feel that wealth and being a tenant places people in social classes more so than the owners. Many, however, said, ''Our landlord is as common as we are.'' Religious dissensions and superior educa­tion were mentioned by a few. 
Recreation and Amusement. The city :furnishes the recrea­tion and social life for a very large number of country people who are within driving distance of Austin. Where the farmer has an automobile this distance may be greater. In one case where there was an automobile the boys spent "three or more nights out of every week in town." One woman reported, "Our interests lie in town, and we don't visit among our neighbors. They have entirely different interests than we have. However, we are friendly when we meet.'' In these districts there is very little organized social life among the country people; all of them go to town where more varied and highly developed sources of entertainment exist. 
TABLE XXX 
ATTENDANCE AT VARIOUS FORMS OF ENTERTAINMENT 
Holl· Oom· 
day munltyMotion celebra­gather-Dane-Picnics Barbe-pie-Circus FairsTotal 
Jngs 
Ing
tlonscuestures 
.  
White White  owners. --­tenants___  94 81  86% 39  42% 89  9% 10  59o/a61  32% 40,  2o% 16  85% 19  10% 12  
NegroNegro  owners---­tenants--­ 19 66  0 12  42 48  0 9  36 62  21 88  36 62  81 ZS  6 12  
Mexicans  -------­ 26  11  23  0  11  8  11  3  16  
-­ ----­ 

The moving picture is a popuar form of entertainment among the whites and is purely an urban form of recreation for this territory. Very few of the negroes and Mexicans reported attendance. There is an occasional ''movie house'' in Austin that is for negroes exclusively, but none seem to exist very long. The circus is popular with all classes, but fairs are rather poorly attended. These forms of entertainment are all furnished by some commercial agency. 
Picnics, barbecues, celebrations, and dancing are more or less sporadic forms of entertainment. They may be promoted by the school, lodge, church society or other permanent organiza­tion in the community, and it is difficult to draw sharp distinc­tions between several of these forms of social gatherings. Bar­becues seem to be connected with political speaking as a rule. Dancing may be a part of one of the other types listed in the table. 
VGr'J few definite conclusions can be drawn from the table. 
The different types of farmers indulge in these amusements to about the same degree, unless one is to draw the lines sharply. The Mexicans, however, are left out to a larger extent than any of the other classes. "We never go anywhere, for we have no clothes, no money. We go to church on Sunday to pray the Lord to help us, but he doesn't help anybody,'' said one Mexican. There is no great difference between white owners and tenants, although some of the tenants .said they couldn't go because of lack of means. "People here can't go to church or to picnics because they haven't any clothes or the means to go,'' said one white tenant's wife. 
"Juneteenth" probably furnishes the negro an opportunity for a holiday celebration, which accounts for their relatively higher per cents in this column. The whites as a class do not "take a day off" to celebrate holidays. 
Dancing is a moral question with many of the people. Very often they not only answered that they did not dance, but added that they objected to it. Only 22 whites said they indulged in dancing where 18 objected. Nine negroes danced, while nine objected; in the case of the Mexicans five danced to one that objected. That dancing is somewhat a matter of nationality is shown by the fact of those that danced, eleven were Germans, six native American, one Danish; of those that objected, fifteen were native American, one Swede, one German. 
TABLE XXXI 
ORGANIZATIONS FURNISHING SOCIAL LIFE 
Total answering Church 
131 
53% White tenants-----------------­White owner•-----------------­
95 55 
Negro owners_________________ _ 22 
59 Negro tenants-----------------­
6466 
4 75
Mexicans ---------------------~ 
,-Lodg-:­
School 
22% 
25 
23 
27 
25 
Others 
13% 12% 10 10 18 0 
3 6 
0 Q 
----------'---~'----l...___ 
There are three principal organizations that furnish most of the social life of this community by having socials, picnics. enter­tainments, etc. These are the church, school, and lodge. A few others were also mentioned as permanent socie-ties and in 
Table XXXI are classed under ''other.s. '' These bodies diffor from the sporadic picnics, . barbecues, etc., organized to celebrate a holiday or to furnish a meeting place for candidates and voters. These are more or less permanent and the social activities are a kind of by-product. 
The church was reported very often as an organization fur­nishing social life. Over 50 per cent of every class mentioned it. The schools and lodge are also important. Seven whites reported membership in a ''shooting club.'' Nine white owners reported membership in some woman's club which helped to furnish social life in some form. 
Fourteen white owners and seven white tenants reported at­tendance at lectures, but did not say whethe·r these were held in Austin or in the country. Four negroE>,s also reported lectures. Eleven white and three negroes reported that they attended musical entertainments. 
Lodges. 
The strongest organizations in the country are the lodges. Both owners and tenants among the whites belong to lodges in about equal proportions. The percentage for negro owners is high because of the small total number in this class. The W. 0. 
W. i~ the strongest lodge of those represented in this territory. The Sons of Herman is the lodge of the Germans and is one of the most noteworthy means of bringing social life. Dances, picnics, and community gatherings are promoted frequently. 
TABLE XXXII 
LODGE MEMBERSHIP 

Among the lodges classed under ' 'others'' are Prretorians, Moose, and Eastern Star. The negroes mentioned the Knights of Pythias, Moose, and "The Farmers' Improvement A1isocia­tion.'' 
Clubs and Societies. Church societies were reported most fre­quently. Thirty-three per cent of the white owners and twenty­two per cent of the white tenants reported that some member of the family was a member of a church society. Forty-four per cent of the negroes were members, and nineteen per cent of the Mexicans. Three cases of membership in the Y. M. C. A. were reported among the whites. 
Nine white women (three owners) belonged to an embroidery club; twelve belonged to sewing clubs (nine owners). Three white owners reported membership in a literary club, three to a parent-teacher's association, two to a mothers' club, and four (two of these were tenants) to a social club. 
Only two clubs were mentioned by the negroes; two claimed membership in a mothers' club and two in a burial association. Two white tenants said they belonged to a poultry club and 
one to a corn club. 
Organized recreation and social life is rather lacking, consid­ering that this is a territory of some 185 square miles. Many reported that it was useless to try to ''start anything'' in their neighborhoods. "Clubs for children are not feasible," said one tenant, "because renters cannot afford it." "Community spirit is dead," said another. "We started a literary society, Sunday school, penmanship class, but all failed. Not much sociability." "When we first came here we were eager to help. Took charge of a Sunday school. But we can't seem to do much.'' ''Ther.e is no organized effort to get together, no consciou~ effort to enjoy community life.'' These are some of the comments of the farm­ers on this question. 
Other Factors. Other factors that make for community life 
are the rural free delivery and the telephone. There are three 
routes out of Austin, and one out of Buda, Delvalle and Creed­
moor, respectively. These are a great help, as is shown by the 
large number of people that read the Austin dailies. 
There are no farmers' telephone lines. Besides the direct city 
lines there is an exchange at Delvalle and another at Creed­
moor, but all phones are either ''Bell" or owned by a private 
concern. Rates are the same as in the city. One woman said 
that although her phone cost her $24 a year she would not do 
Social and Economic Survey of Southern Travis County 63 
without the convenience. She believes that country life woulU be ever so much more livable jf all the farmers were connected by the telephone. But here the tenant is at a disadvantage, for he cannot afford to put in a "box" and pay for the wire, only to have it taken out at the end of a year or two when he moves to another farm. Practically all of the subscribers in this area are landowners. 
Conclusions 
1. 
In the territory surveyed the people are divided by racial and national lines. 

2. 
There is not enough social life within these racial lines according to the testimony of the people. There are some evi­dence& of social inequalities other than race or nationality. 

3. 
There is a lack of social intercourse between neighbors, and between country arid city people. This is especially true of 


t~nants. 
4. 
The city furnishes a great part of the recreation and en­tertainment for the people. Organized effort to furnish their own entertainment is lacking. The European foreign classes as a rule have more organized social activity and are less de­pendent on the city than are the ''natives.'' 

5. 
The church, school, and lodge furnish a good deal of the social entercourse of the community. 

6. 
In practically all cases the white owners participate more freely in all forms of social and community life than do the tenants or those of the other classes, the Mexicans least of all. 


CHAPTER XII 
RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY. 
R. B. WOODS 
The data afforded by the schedule dealing with religious activ­ity may be considered under five heads: (1) membership, (2) attendance, ( 3) the church, ( 4) the pastor, ( 5) activity for the children. 
Membership. It was found that 70 per cent of the popula­tion of this district were members of some church; 66 per cent of the whole tenant class being members, while 78 per cent of the owning class were in this category. It is to be noted that a larger percentage of the owning class than of the tenant class were members. The difference here is not so noticeable among the negroes and Mexicans, but is rather marked among the whites. Thus, 77 per cent of the white owners were members while only 59 per cent of the tenants belonged to some church. A smaller percentage of the white tenants than of any other class were members, while the percentage among the white owners was the largest of any class. This is explained by the mobility and poverty of the tenant class and the relative stability and well-to­
do character of the owning class. The former usually has no permanent interest in the social life of the community while, as a general rule, the latter has. 
The tendency of emotional folk to manifest their religious 
feelings in a socially approved way is indicated by the fact that 
as a whole the negroes were more usually members than the 
people of any other class. Again, a larger percentage of the 
women than of the men in every class were members. 
In the case of the Mexicans, the membership may be explained 
in part by historical reasons. Sixty of tJi.e Mexicans belonged to 
the Catholic church, while only five belonged to a Protestant 
church (the Methodist). The Methodist church has missions 
along the border and these five were probably initiated while 
there. On the whole, the Mexicans are not touched by the 
religious activity in this country, but merely profess in a per­
Social and Economic Survey of S01tthern Travis County 65 
functory way that they are members of the Catholic ehureh. This tendency of foreigners to bring over their chcrch affiliations is also well illustrated by the fact that practicaily all Germans and Swedes are members of the Luth€ran church. The differ­ence between the two races, however, is marked. The Mexicans are on the whole ignorant, poor, and rarely attend church, while the Germans and Lutherans have built two rural churches and have one in Austin, are usually thrifty, intelligent, and regular church attenders. 
The three leading casual aspects of this subject, then, are: 
(1) 
Economic sufficiency and interest are important in de­termining who will be church members. 

(2) 
Mental development also applies. 

(3) 
The racial or national church affiliations hold in this section. 


Passing now to a consideration of membership from a denom­inational standpoint, we find that the four leading churches are Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, and Catholic. Altogether, nine denominations are represented in this district: Baptist, Metho­dist, Lutheran, Catholic, Christian, Presbyterian, Nazarene, Christian Science, and Episcopal. Over 50 per cent of the mem· bers belong to the two first-named churches, 34 per cent being Baptist, while 23 per cent are Methodist. Here we may continue the contrast between the Catholics and Lutherans, the member­ship of both being almost wholly of the foreign element. In the former membership, 90 per cent of the members are tenants while only 10 per cent are owners. In the latter, on the con­trary, 30 per cent are tenants while 70 per cent are owners. In· the Baptist and Methodist church.es, however, the membership is about evenly divided between owners and tenants. It would seem, therefore, that economic interest i.s more significant in the religious activity of the foreign elements of the population than in the native classes. 
Attendance. It is not meant that each of the above nine de­nominations has one or more well-organized congregations grouped about a church. Of course, it is unnecessary to say that not nearly all of the church members attend church regu­larly and that the people who attend church are not only mem­
bers but also many nonmembers. Of those giving ans.wers, the following attended regularly: 51 per cent of the tenant men; 60 per cent of the owning men; 56 per cent of the tenant women; 54 per cent of the owning women. On the whole, the owning classes attend more regularly than the tenant classE'.s. The women in all classes (with the possible exception of the Mexican tenants) attend more regularly than the men. 
Thirty-five per cent of the district population (or 287 of the 816) gave some reason for not attending services regularly. The remaining 65 per cent either had no reason or at least did not give it. The reasons given may be grouped as follows: physical 157, biological 35, social 91, religious 4. Under "phys­ical" are included such reasons as the church is too far away. the weather is too unfavorable, and the person has "no way to go." Under "biological" are included age, sickness, fatigue, babies, cripples, etc. By ''social'' are meant indifference, sen­sitiveness as to dress, lack of preacher, or ''lack of time.'' By ''religious'' are meant heterodox belief, disgust with hypocrisy. etc. The chief reasons for irregularity in attendance were: dis­tance (100), weather (36), no time (35), indifference (28). 
The two first reasons would seem to indicate that there is a lack of proper distribntion of churches. The last two would seem to indicate that economic conditions require practically all the time of the farmers or, at least, so much of it as to lead them to become indifferent to othe·r activities. The first two reasons probably give rise to the last two. 
The Church. Naturally the country church is more important to the people of this district than is the town church. Of those giving answers, 57 per cent of the tenants and 58 per cent of the owners said that they attended country churches while only 18 per cent of the tenants and 14 per cent of the owners attend town churches. It may safely be assumed that two-thirds of the people in this district are affected by only the country churches. As a consequence, the religious activity of the district is largely molded by the country church. 
Those giving answers in regard to frequency of services indi­cate that services once a. month is the typical case. Forty-two per cent attend once a month, 32 per cent attend every Sunday, 
26 per cent· attend twice a month. It may be explained that services are held by the denominations in rotation at these churches. As a result there are only a few churches in which services are not held at least once a week. It is not particularly pertinent to the purpo.ses of the inquiry to ask whether any par­ticular denomination holds services each Sunday. Our concern is rather how often are the people reached by any service. It will be seen that over 50 per cent of the church members giving answers say that they are reached at least twice a month. 
From the standpoint of religious dynamics the fact that less than half, or about 35 per cent, of the population of this district go to church only twice a month is an ominous indication. This is emphasized by the fact that many of the farmers attend an annual camp-meeting (usually held during the summer) and then seldom if ever attend services during the rest of the year. It should be remembered, too, that little over 50 per cent of the members attend regularly. In other words, approximately 25 per cent of the population are brought in contact with religious exercises regularly twice a month. Services of some sort should be held more frequenty and the attendance should be more reg­ular. Lack of efficient pastors on the part of the church and economic pressure on the part of the congregatiOn seem to be responsible for the unfavorable condition. 
The church members seem to think that there is considerable 
social activity on the part of the church. All of this activity 
seems to take the form of ,., sociability entertainments.'' In 
other words, there is no .systematic planning or controlling: of 
social life on the part of the church. On the contrary, the "so­
cials'' of the churches are said to have the following purposes: 
Money for the church ..........82 per cent 
Sociability . . ........... .......18 per cent 

Thus, the building of churches or the paying of deficits upon those already built motivates social activity controlled by the church. These socials touch 66 per cent of those answering the question. Only 31 per cent of the church members answered this question. The answers indicate that thB white tenants more than any other class, feel the lack of socials. 
From the data gathered we have no way of knowing just how many dead churches there are in this territory, though the number is certainly small. The "why" of dead churches is of essential interest. The reasons given by most of the ten­ants are (1) no interest, (2) lack of money, (3) internal dis­agreement; by the owners (1) lack of members, (2) lack of pastor, (3) internal disagreement. Material gathered after as well as during the survey indicates that the chief reason for dead churches as well as for lack of members is that the white tenants are being crowded out by the Mexicans, who usually pro­fess to belong to the Catholic church in a passive way. The tenants, having small resources and moving about from year to year, are unwilling to devote very much of their time and money to religious activity while the owners are too few in number to pervade the community atmo.sphere with a whole­some religious spirit. 
The data in regard to church union indicates that most of the people would like to see either (1) a community or union church building or (2) the actual union of all churches in this or that denominational creed. Thirty-two per cent of the church mem· bers answered the question and of this number 73 per cent were in favor of church union of some sort. 
The Pastor. The majority of the pastors are non-resident. Of those answering the question only 24 per cent of the tenants and 34 per cent of the owning class had the advantages which follow from the residency of a preacher. A larger percentage of the negroes than of any other class have such advantages. This is partially due to the fact that several of the pastors are also farmers. Such pastors are also found among the whites. Great progress could be made, no doubt, if all of the congre­gations were organized about such pastors wliere it is impossible to maintain a resident pastor. The organizing and directing should be done, of course, by some responsible agent of the church or churches which have the strongest following in any particular community. In other words, if the church would send out an able organizer who could group a congregation about the ablest farmer available the lack of a resident pastor with its attendant losses would not be so keenly felt. 
As conditions are now, the pastor usually visits the majority of his congregation once every year. He rarely visits any family over once a month. Especially among the tenants, there are many families which the pastor never visits now. Of those answering the question 47 per cent said that the pastor never visited them; 33 pe;r cent said once a year; 14 per cent said once a month; 6 per cent said twice a month or oftener. Ob­viously, the pastor is not in very intimate personal contact with his congregation. The above figures are approximately the same as those for last year. 
There is quite a diversity of opinion as to whether or not the pastor is interested in agricultural problems. The better opinion is that he is not interested in such problems, although there is 
. considerable difference of judgment; e. g., the negroes, with their farmer-preachers, say that he is interested, while the whites, with their non-resident pastors say empatically that he is not in­terested. Of those answering 42 per cent say that the pastor is interested; 58 per cent say that he is not. 
On the whole, the preachers are not very well educated. Ap­proximately 60 per cent of those answering have pastors with a common education, ranging from three years in a public school or self-education to high school graduates; while the other 38 per cent have college men as pastors. It should be remembered, however, that many of these college-preachers are theological students who adopt this method of getting experience and earn­ing a bit on the side. Consequently the district is not so well blessed as might appear. Such practice is, of course, valuable to both sides, but it is not so valuable as it would be did the pastor have a rather permanent interest in the community. 
Activity for the Children. The data in regard to religious activity for the children are rather meagre and indefinite. A large majority of the farmers answered the question to the effect that their children did not attend Sunday school regularly. ThP. Baptist, Methodist, and Lutherans are most active in this matter. 
There is also a lack of other organizations for young people and a lack of interest in those actually organized. Those mentioned were Christian Endeavor, B. Y. P. U., Epworth League, Literary, 
Sewing Club, Home Mission, Starlight, Bible Band, and Sister Aid. All of these organizations had very small memberships. 
Conclusions. (1) There is a marked need for courageous, progressive, intelligent leadership in religious activity. The leader should do something in relieving economic strains by exploiting concrete sins. He should also be able to make life more agreeable by a more intelligent control in the social activity of the church. 
(2) 
There is a heavy obligation upon the Catholic church to foster a more wholesome life among the Mexicans, to do for them what the Lutheran church is doing for the Swedes and Germans. 

(3) 
There is a deplorable lack of activity for the children. Here the church is neglecting one of its richest fields. 

(
4) The most significant fact is the relative stability of the owning class and the instability of the tenant classes. Each class has its own problems and the church cannot hope to progress until it knows these problems and makes reasonable efforts to help solve them . 






PART III. INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION 
CHAPTER XIII 
CLASSES OF TENANTS AND RENT CONTRACTS 
HINES BAKER 
Classification of Te.nants. There are in general in the terri­tory surveyed four groups of tenants-cash tenants, share ten­ants, croppers, and mixed tenants. The cash tenant pays a certain sum of money for the use of the land for a fixed period of time, usually a year. He has complete control, furnishes all necessary capital, implements, work stock, seed, etc., and tills the land as he sees fit, running all risk as to success or failure. The share tenant is in exactly the same position as the cash tenant, except that instead of paying cash his rent is paid with a certain share of the crop, usually a fourth of the cotton and a third of the corn and grain. The cropper, or "halver," fur­nishes no capital; he puts hi,s time and whatever ability he pos­sesses into making a crop upon the land with the capital fur­nished by the owner, and receives one-half of the crop. The cropper is in many cases hardly a tenant at all, but a sort of laborer, working under the minute control and supervision of the owner. The mixed tenant is a combination of the cash ten­ant with one of the other two. In the majority of cases, cash is paid for the use of the corn and grain land, while a fourth share of the cotton is paid as rent on cotton land. Such is not al­way.s the case, however, and the reverse very often occurs. 
There are three groups of tenants according to race-whites, negroes, and Mexicans. Of the 243 tenants reported, 45 per cent were whites, 36 per cent were negroes, and 19 per cent were Mexicans. The following table of percentages will show the relation of these groups to the four systems of tenure: 
TABLE XXXIII 
KIND OF RENT PAID BY 243 TENANTS 
Whites  Negroes  Mexicans  All ---­ 
All cash------------------------------------­Straight share------------------------------­Straight cropper---------------------------­Mixed -------------··------------------------­ 10 % 32 .8 8.2 50  2.3 % 12.64 35.6 48.3  0% 26 35 39  5.3% 25 20 47  

Taking the three straight tenure systems, it will be noticed that negroes and Mexicans are predominantly croppers ; that is, that they have no capital, and are only slightly different from laborers. The Mexican is never a straight cash tenant, and only 2.3 per cent of the negroes are such. The whites, on the other hand, are predominantly share and cash tenants; they possess sufficient capital and business ability to raise a crop inde­pendently. There are even 1.8 per cent more cash tenants among them than there are croppers. 
The mixed tenant, it will be seen from the table, predominatt> in all groups. That is, there was not that absolute share and cropper system of tenure as generally believed-no absolute "third and fourth" or "half." While only about 5 per cent of a11 tenants were straight cash tenants, 25 per cent straight share tenants, and 20 per cent straight "halvers," 47 per cent were paying part cash rent. 
It is in connection with this mixed tenant that most varia­tions were found. Of the whites, only 10 per cent paid all cash, while 46 per cent paid cash for bay land, 33 per cent for corn, 3 per cent flat cash sums, and 32 per cent paid cash for both hay and corn land; 33 per cent were straight share tenants, while 88 per cent paid by share for cotton, 4;7.3 per cent for corn, and 25.5 per cent for other crops. 
Of the negro tenants, only about 2 per cent paid all cash. But 46 per cent paid cash for hay land, 36 per cent for corn, 1 per cent paid cash flat sums, and 12 per cent paid cash for both hav and corn land; 13 per cent were straight share tenants, while 54 per cent paid a share of cotton, 24 per cent a share of corn, and 12 per cent a share of other crops. 
Of the Mexicans, none paid &traight cash, but 28 per cent paid ca.sh for hay and 35 per cent for .corn; 26 per cent were straight share tenants, while 54 per cent gave a share of cotton, 30 per cent a share of corn, and 9 per cent a share of other crops. 
Taking all tenants as a group, only about 5 per eent paid all cash, while only 25 per cent were straight share tenants. 
These percentages bring out very clearly that there is no uni­formity of tenure, or of payment. Cotton is the prevailing share crop because easily measured and marketed, while hay is the chief cash rent crop. A clear view of the different systems of tenure can be gained from the following percentage table: 
TABLE XXXIV 
VARIATIONS IN RENTS PAID BY 243 TENANTS 
I Per cent of tenants paying
cash 
-
t ~ 
'fo
~ 
·o; 
....
....
i 
" 
00 
III"'°' 
-
-
-
Whites 
10 
46
--------------110 
Negroes 
87 
2 
46
------------· 
46 
0 
28
Mexicans ----------­
243 
42
5
.All -----------------· 
rent Part 
e 
0 0 
33 
36 35 34 
s 
:::>
.. 

.., " 
~ 
-
3 1 0 2 
11
".
i>.El 
oso 
::cl "' 
-
Per cent of 

Per cent 
Per cent 
tenants paying 
of 
of mixed 
share rent 
.c ~ 
bt 
·o; 
....
..., 
00 
i:i 
0 
....
.... 
0 0 
32 
33· 88 
12 
54 
24 
54 
24 
lij 

67 
s 
0 0 
croppers 
tenants 
~I ~ .,; 
.d., 
CJ 
" 
'Eli 
.,
t 
~
o; 
....
.c 
.c 
~ 
....
.... 
0
....
0 
00 
0 Si 
8 
-
-
47 
26 
8 
2 
0 
50 
24 
12 
7 
48
36 
'l 
30 
9 
35 
0 
11 
39 
3 
47
36 
17 
20 
5 
~ 
" ~ 
.... 
.... 
0 
p, 
8 
I-< 
-
30 
32 
26 30 
~ 
" ~ 
t: 
0 
~8 
z­
-
16 13 17 
Nor do the figures for the amount of share paid show abso­lute uniformity. The prevailing share for cotton is one-fourth and for corn and grain one-third. But there were six families of white tenants paying one-third of the cotton, five paying one­fourth of the corn, and one family paying one-fourth of the hay. For the negroe.s, there were four cases whe·re the tenant paid one-third of the cotton and one case where one-half was paid. Five Mexican tenants paid one-third of the cotton and one or two even gave one-half. The cropper system showed like varia­tions from the straight one-half with the owner furnishing every­
thing. Often odd jobs were required of the tenants, such as feed­ing, cutting wood, etc., for the landlord; sometimes the tenant paid for the seed; in several cases he paid a fiat sum extra for break­ing the land in the spring; and in one case the landlord took two-thirds of the corn and in another only one-third. 
Form of Contract. With reference to the form of the agree­ment between landlord and tenant, Table XXXV shows the facts as gathered. 
TABLE XXXV 
LENGTH AND KIND OF LEASES 
Per cent hav-Per cent of Per cent of Ing oral
I
Per cent of 
contracts for contracts for agreement contracts for 
other fixed indefinite with one year. 
period. period. landlord. 
6.4 11.1 82 Negroes ----------------------------­
82 .5
Whi.tes -----------------------------­
9.65 4.85 78 Mexicans ---------------------------­
85.5 
5 5 81 All -----------------------__ -------__ 
90 
7 8 8085 
This shows something of a surprise in that the percentage of oral contracts is 4 per cent higher for whites than for negroes and 1 per cent higher than for Mexicans. This may be due to a better understanding and feeling between landlords and white tenants or to use of a standard form of written contracts by landlords working large plantations by negro labor. The vari­ance either way from the average, however, is only 2 per cent. 
Length of Lease. The one-year contract marks the nrevailing period of lease, 85 per cent of all contracts being one-year agree­ments. This fact very largely accounts for the large percentage of oral contracts shown in the table above ; otherwise the agree­ment would come within the Statutes of Frauds, and would have to be in writing to be valid. Other fixed periods of time were usually three and five years, there being only four leases re­ported for two years. Eight per cent of all contracts were made for an indefinite period of time. 
Decision as to Crop Grown. Very important in connection with the question of independence of the tenant, of supervision by the landlord, and of general terms between the two are the 
Sooial and Econornic S·wrvey of Southern Travis County 75 
facts as to who decides what crop shall be grown on the land. If the renter decides himself, he is pretty clearly a tenant; but if the landlord decides, then the renter is little better than a hired laborer, working entirely under the owner's supervision. The facts as to this are brought out in the following table· of percentages: 
TABLE XXXVI 
DECISION AS TO CROPS TO BE GROWN 
All  tenants.  Croppers only.  
- 
Decided by  
owner and  Decided by  By  By  By  
tenant.  tenant.  owner.  cropper.  owner.  
White tenants_______ Negro tenants________ Mexican tenants______  11% 5 14  76% 59 !5  13% 36 61  8.2% 35.6 35.0  12.6% 36.0 61.0  
All  ------------------­ 9  62  29  20.0  29.0  

The cases in which the owner decides are found mainly where the tenants are croppers,-unimportant among the whites and very frequent among the negroe-s and Mexicans. In fact, there is a close correspondence between the percentages for croppers and for owner's decision. 
The extreme variation in the case of the Mexican tenants is due to the fact that the Mexican is usually not familiar with our crops and modes of agriculture, and must of necessity de­pend upon the owner to decide, even when he has sufficient cap­ital to become a share tenant. In all other cases it is seen that the percentage in which the owner decides is slightly in -excess of the percentage for croppers. 
Opi,nions on Rent Regulation by Law 
Some information was gathered as to the attitude of both owners ana tenants toward Governor Ferguson's tenant piank, which provides for an annual rental not in excess of an amount equal to a fourth of the cotton and a third of the corn and grain. Only a small proportion reported on this question : 87 out of 133 white owners, 12 out of 28 negro owners, 2 out of 2. Mexi­can owners; 86 out of 121 white tenants, 47 out of 87 negro tenants, and 14 out of 45 Mexican tenants. The vote stood: 
TABLE XXXVII 
OPINIONS OF FARMERS ON RENT REGULATION BY LAW 
Mexicans.
Negroes.
Whites. 

o.~"· 1~_'':"''~:f~~1~
46 65 
10 41 2 13
For ---------------------------­
41 21 
2 6 0 1
Ae-ainst ----------------------­
Little reliance can be placed in these :figures, however, as the examiner was required in most cases to explain the ''plank''; haste prevented a clear understanding of the matter presented on the part of the farmer. But as the figures stand, they show a majority in favor of the plan among both owners and tenants, especially the latter. They do not show much, however, regard­ing their real attitude toward the various systems of tenure and rent payment. The investigation, moreover, shows that the pro­visions of the law are not infrequently violated (see page 73). 
So<i,al and Economic Survey of Southern Travis County 77 
CHAPTER XIV 
LENGTH OF TENURE• 
GEO. S. WEHRWEIN 
One of the faults of the tenant system, especially in the South, is the short tenure of the average tenant. Too many move year after year trying to get a ''better place,'' thereby becoming citizens of no one community. The bad effect of this constant moving is evident. No one can become acquainted with a farm in a year and get the best results from it. A ten­ant of this type has no interest in the soil except to "make a good crop'' and move on. This is not farming, it is ''soil min­ing:" He has no interest in keeping up the fences, preventing soil washing, providing drainage or fertilization, because if he does spend time and money upon .such permanent improvements it's ''all for some other fellow's benefit or the landlord's.'' He is not a permanent resident of the community and the school, church, and roads are of less concern to him than if he were in the community for some time. He has les.s opportunity to be­come neighborly and enter into the social life of the community. 
From the landowner's standpoint the results are equally as bad. Unless he is right on the ground he cannot supervise the work of every new man. Once he knows his man, he can trust him, and know that the land will be taken care of. Together. they can plan terraces, fencing, manuring, and other works of good agriculture, to the benefit of both. Housing is a difficult matter when one year a renter comes with a family of but two and the next year the same house· has to shelter a family of ten. One . year a white man comes, the next year it may be a negro or Mexican. 
A bulletin of the United States censust showed th.at in Texas fully 61 per cent of the ten.ants move every year. In the area survey€d the facts are shown in the following table. The ques­
•All the tables in this chapter are by the class in Statistics. 
tBulletin: Thirteenth Census of U. S., 1910; Stability of Farm Operators on Term of Occupancy of Farms. 
tion was asked, ''How long have you been on this farm 1'' arid the answers showed that 41 per cent of the white tenants, 43 per cent of the Mexicans, and 39 per cent of the negro tenants had been on their farms one year or less. These figures are lower than they would be if all the cases had been taken. In a considerable number of cases farmers had just moved to their present farms and had come from some place outside of the area surveyed. These, of course, could not give any informa­tion on the other schedules and were omitted entirely. 
TABLE XXXVIII 
I ,ENGTH OF TENURE 
Tenants . Owners . Number of years . . -­on farm . White. !egro. , Mex. I~White. Negro. Mex. ~~ 
1 or less________ 39 S3 18 00 16 3 I 20 110 
2_____ ____ ________ 10 11 5 26 14 1 1 0 15 41 
3_________________ 5 5 6 16 " 1 0 6 22 
4___________ ______ 9 11 2 22 5 0 0 5 27 
5_________________ 10 5 2 17 8 0 1 9 26 

(;_________________ !! 2 2 6 6 1 0 7 13 
7 _________________ 5 4 3 12 7 5 0 u !l4 
g______ ___________ 3 " 2 8 7 l 0 8 16 
9_________________ 2 5 0 7 5 1 0 6 13 10_________________ 1 3 2 6 6 1 0 7 13 
Over 10___________ 9 6 0 15 69 11 0 80 95 
10-15___ ___________ 9 3 0 1Z 12 15-20______________ 24 2 0 26 26 20-25 ___ ___________ 1 8 3 0 11 11 25-29_______ _______ " 1 0 6 6 30-35_____ _________ !) 1 0 10 10 
35-4()____________ 2 1 0 3 3
~_ 
40-50__ _______._____ 6 0 () 6 6 
Over 50-----------1 6 o 0-.6 6 Totals --------g;-l---SS--;212251148 ""251--2-175400 
Table XXXVIII also shows the length of tenure for the own­ers and it is surprising to note the small number of owners who have had their farms over ten years. The accompanying clia­gram shows that the greatest number have had their farms from 5 to 10 years. A great many of the short terms here are explained by recent transfers from father to son. In one such case the son said he had been on the farm he was now operating for 21 years, but as an independent operator for but two years. The information is valuable, however, in that it shows the new­
ness of the community and the instability of tenure even among the owners. 
LENGTH OF TENURE OF 400 FARM~RS 

FIGURE VII 
Over 50 per cent of the tenants have been on their farms two years or less. Comparing one race with another, 73 per cent of the whites, 7 4 per cent of the negroes and 78 per cent of the Mexicans have been on one farm less than five years. Consid­ering that the Mexican is the newest addition to the farming population, there is little difference among the three races as far as length of tenure is concerned. 
Another part of the schedule used in the survey asked for the number of farms occupied and the time that each was occupied. This was not answered entirely satisfactorily, for those who had rented a long time could not recall all the farms they had been on or the exact time spent on each. Table XXXIX, made from these data, however, subst !mtiates the facts given in Table XXXVIII, namely, that Texas farms change operators very 
often. 
6-S. 
Bulletin of the University of Texas 
TABLE XXXIX LENGTH OF TERMS OF RENTtNG 
94 white tenants. 
Number of 1-year terms _______________________ __J 
93
Number of 2-year terms _________________________ _ 
54 
26 Number of 4-year terms-------------------------­
Number of 8-year terms-------------------------­
15 Number of &-year terms-------------------------­
17 Number of 6-year terms----------------------~--­1 10 Number of 7-year terms-------------------------­
8 Number of S-year terms-------------------------­
12
Number of !}-year terms_________________________ _ 
2 
3
Number of 10-year terms-------------------------­
Number of terms longer than 10 years___________ 16 74 negro 
tenants. 
96 
57 
24 
25 
11 7 8 9 9 
4. 14 
33 Mexican 
tenants. 
23 
19 
11 4 2 3 3 
4. 
.0 2 
10 
The large number of one-and. two-year terms in the three classes of renters is noteworthy. The 33 Mexicans, however, have a higher proportion of the 10-and over 10-year terms than the other two classes of renters. 
Table XL shows some other facts in regard to tenure and length of the renting term. This table is based on the whole life-time of the farmers as tenants. Some have been farmers only a few years and therefore have occupied only a few farms; others have spent 40 or 50 years in this occupation, and for them the figures will be much higher. 
TABLE XL 
NATURE OF 'fENURE OF VARIOUS TENANTS 
Total  Average  Average  
Total number.  number years spent in farming.  number years on each farm.  number of farms occupied.  
White tenants_____________ ---------­Negro tenants________ ________ ------­ 94 74  10.5 13.4  3.8 3.7  2.7 3.5  
Mexican tenantS-------------------­All tenants____________-------------­ 33 201  9.0 11.3  3.6 3.8  2.4 2.9  

The table shows that Mexicans have spent on the average but nine years as farmers, because they are new in this section. The white tenants have spent fewer years as tenant farmers than the negroes, because many are young men who in a few years become owners and therefore the "number of farms oc­
cupied'' is smailer as well as the ''years spent in farming.'' These two factors are correspondingly larger for the negroes because they have less opportunity or inclination to get out of the tenant class. This table, like Tabl.e XXXVIII, shows that the average number of years spent on each farm is very much alike for all the three classes. 
The conclusion to be drawn from the data presented is, that Travis County, like the rest of Texas, is su:ff.ering from short tenures. In many cases tenants simply move to another farm in the same neighborhood or sometimes to a farm owned by the same owner. There is no way to tell how many of the changes represented in these tables are moves of this nature. While these are not objectionable from the standpoint of the com­munity, nevertheless they mean that a new man has come on to the ''place'' and an agricultural readjustment must be made. Perhaps the house is not suited to the new man's family or the barns not sufficient to shelte·r his animals and tools. 
An important point in this connection is that the transient never learns to regard any place a.s a "home"-unless his covered wagon can be r.egarded as such. This in itself is an important matter from the standpoint of the State, interested as it should be in having a home-owning and home-loving citizenship. 
Perhaps it is not wise to want ''permanency'' as long as there are two non-white races in the midst of the white farm­ers. But, if the tenant system is to increase and become ulti­mately the system of operating our farms as it is in England, more permanent tenures must come if agriculture is to flour­ish. Legislation will be necessary to regulate ~ontracts : reim­bursement of the tenant for improvements he has made on the farm and other features of the English laws will have to be adapted to Texas conditions. Under the English system farms pass from father to son as if ownership existed, the son renting from the same landlord as his father. Howev:er, such laws will be of little use until both tenants and landlords feel the need of them keenly enough to want such legislation. The other al­ternative is to try to secure the maximum of home-ownership and thus make unnecessary such legislation.• 
•see Bulletin No. 39: 1915, University of Texas, "Studies in The Land Problem in Texas," especially pp. 53-55; 78-101. 
CHAPTER XV 
RESIDENCE AND OCCUPATION OF LANDLORDS 
GEO. S. WEHRWEIN AND E. B. NAUGLE 
The residence of the landlord is important because of his rela­tion to the farm and to the tenant. If he lives so far away from the farm that he cannot give it his proper attention an:d supervision there will be poorer crops and a neglected farm. "Absentee landlordism" has a tendency to encourage the one­crop system. Cotton is an ideal crop from the standpoint of a landowner who cannot be on the ground. It cannot be eaten or used or converted into money until picked and ginned. The owner has a check on his tenant through the gin an:d there is hardly a way in which the latter can escape rendering the landlord what is due to him. This is not true of corn and other diversified crops. These can be used in various ways or sold on the sly and for this reason money rent is often asked for them and sometimes made so high that it is unprofitable to raise them. The position of the landlord is shown in one case where a certain field had been in cotton for some 40 years. The owner was advised to rotate it with corn. ''That will never do; the niggers would feed it to the hogs or steal it and I won't get anything,'' he said. Where supervision is possible, these dangers are at least minimized. 
The greatest objection to the absentee lanlord is that he draws his incQme from the country and spends it in the city or the community where he lives. He has to keep up two "places," pay taxes on both, is called on to support schools, churches, and other organizations in both communities. It is only natural for him to prefer the place where he lives to the one he rarely ever sees. He begrudges every dollar he has to spend on his farm that does not bring immediate profits. He is inclined to neg­lect the house, the buildings, and the upkeep of the· farm, and the tenant who has €Ven less interest in the place does the same. Taxes seem doubly heavy and every effort is made to keep them 
down, even to threatening tenants who want to vote a higher school tax. Schools are the poorest in our heavy tenant coun­ties, although they are the richest in the State.* 
Churches and roads suffer for the same reasons and there is a tendency for homes, schools, churches to run down with no at­tempt on the part of either owners or tenants at heautifica. tion or even keeping up the appearance of the countryside. With the gradual displacement of the white tenant matters will grow worse instead of better. 
As the expenses of city living increase the landlord is in­clined to try to get more rent to keep pace with his increased expenses. This is especfally true of a farmer who retires in middle life to move to town and his family gradually ":finds" itself in the life of the city. Governor Fergµson said this was one of the causes of the "bonus" when he testified at the Dal­las Land Hearing. Being away from his tenants, he has little acquaintance with them and is inclined to look upon them and the farm as mere producers of income. He does not hesitate to bring in negroes or Mexicans if these will produce more money, by charging the ''third all around'' or a ''bonus.'' He is not aware of the injury to tl~e country community by depopu­lating it of white people, substituting other races who will need other schools and churches. The remaining white folks will want' to move away from such enighbors.t These are the conditions that led Prof. Carver to say, "Next to war, pestilence, and fam­ine, the worst thing that can happen to a rural community is absentee landlordism. '' 
Not all landlords, however, are guided by the principles of immediate profits, nor all of them unmindful of the welfare of the community. Some of the non-resident landowners of the area surveyed are anxious to have better schools and are will­ing to be taxed for their support. In the long run a well kept community with good houses, schools, churches, and roads will attract the better renters who will stay for a number of years 
•see Bulletin 21: 1915, University of Texaa, "Studies in Farm Ten­ancy," pp. 141-147; Bulletin 364: University of Texas, "A Study of the Rural Schools of Texas," p. 112. Also the Rural School Survey of this 
same 	area. 
tSee "Social Life," p. 53. 

and "make money" for themselves and their landlord. But not all owners have the "long-run" point of view nor care for "long-run" profits. 
Table XLI shows the residence of the landlords of 237 ten­ants as reported by these tenants. It does not give the proper idea of the number of landlords but merely the number of ten­ants or the percentage of tenants whose landlords live on ad­joming farms, in nearby towns, etc. Several of the tenants may have the same man as landlord anJ he appears in the table as often as the tenant mentions his landlord. That several ten­ants have the same landlord does not detract from the import­ance of the fact that as· many farms are run by an absentee. 
TABLE XLI 
RESIDENCE OF LANDLORD OF 237 TENANTS 
Adjoining 
Nearby in Nearby in 
country. town
Race. Number. farm . 
Others. 
1-~~-1-~~~-1-~~-1~~~-1-~~~ 
14% 47%
White --------------------------116 28% 
11% 
2() 29
Negro --------------------------82 45 
6 
15 49
Mexican -----------------------39 26 
10 
1-~~-l-~~~-1-~~-1~~~-1-~~~ 
16 4i
Totals ----------------------237 34 
9 
00% 00% 
According to Table XLI, of the 237 tenants 50 per cent had landlords who lived in the country, on the adjoining farm or some farm or perhaps village nearby. These could give full superv1s10n. In sixteen cases the white tenants were renting from some relative, usually father or father-in-law, and the mat­ter of supervision was not important. A few such cases were found among the negro tenants. 
Of the 97 renters whose landlords lived in ''nearby towns," 46 reported the residence of the landlord as Austin. Of the 22 listed under ''Others,'' 3 lived in adjoining counties and one outside of Texas altogether. The negroes have the lowest per cent of non-resident landlords and the Mexicans the highest. 
The number of Mexican renters is rather small in comparison with the negro tenants, but the percentage seems to show that the Mexican is the more trustworthy of the two and the non­resident landowners feel safer in renting to him than to a negro who needs constant supervision. 
The occupation of the landlord is of importance. Table XLII shows the number of tenants who had farmers or busines11 men landlords. Like Table XLI, it does not give the number of landowners, but the number of farms supervised by these men. 
TABLE XLII 
OCCUPATION OF LANDLORDS OF 230. TENANTS 
White Neirro ---­Mexican -­Totals ---­ Race. ----------------------­---------------------­-----------------­--­--------------------­ Number of tenants. 112 83 35 230  Active farmer landlords . 69 77 63 66  Per cent with Retired Buslneils farmer. man. 15 17 11 1 6 11 12 10.5  Others. 9 11 20 11.5  

If the owner is a farmer or a retired farmer his experience can be of great value to his tenants. Fully 78 per cent of the tenants in the area surveyed have farmer landlords, the negroes having the highest percentage, and the Mexicans the low.est, cor­responding with the residenee of farm owners. It was also found that 88 per cent of the landlords were farmers, r-etired farmers, or had been on a farm at sometime, although in some other busi­ness now. About 10 per cent of the tenants have business men as landlords-merchants, brokers and bankers. 
It is difficult to draw definite conclusions as to the effects of ''absentee landlordism'' in the area under consideration. Fifty per cent of non-resident landlords may seem very high, yet if the majority of them take the proper interest in their tenants, the farm and the community very little can be said by way of criticism. On this point there are no statistical data. The fact that over three-fourths of the landlords are of the farming class is encouraging, but does not warrant the conclusion that there is no neglect of the farm, or no friction between landlord and tenant. 
CHAPTER XVI 
SIZE OF FARMS* 
GEO. S. WEHRWEIN 
Size of Farms Owned. The tax records of Travis County for 1915 were examined to learn the size of the farms or holdings owned by farmers and city residents in the area surveyed. The total number of acres in Travis County is 640,629 acres; of this 487,332 acres, or 76 per cent, were rendered by residents of the county; 78,317 acres, or 12.3 per cent by non-residents, and 74,980 ac.res or 11.7 per cent was unrendered. 
Commissioners' Precinct Number Four covers the area south of the Colorado River and east of the San Antonio Post Road. i' It does not include the strip between the Post Road and the 
I. and G. N. Railroad, which is a part of the area covered by the survey. This precinct takes in a part of South Austin and a considerable number of small city holdings are included with the regular farms. Non-residen.t holdi,ngs are not listed by pre­cincts, so that the original surveys as found on the Land Office maps had to be used to find these. For these reasons absolute accuracy is not claimed for these figures, but the table does give a good picture of the sizes of farms owned. 
*Tables XLIV and XLV are the work of the class in Statistics. 
tSee frontispiece. 

TABLE XLIII 
SIZE OF HOLDINGS, PRECINCT 4, TRAVIS COUNTY 

Rural resident Olty resident Non-resident 
Size  of  holdings.  holdings.  holdings.  holdings.  Unknown.  Total.  
1 to  00 acres_____  62.  4  7 .  1  74  
20 to  40 acres_____  16  3  3  2  24  
40 to  60 acres____,_  25  3  2  o  30  
60 to  80 acres_____  33  O  1  O  34  
80 to  100 acre•--~-­ 32  3  3  3  41  
100 to  125 acres_____  52  3  8  o  63  
125 to · 150 acres_____  17  1  2  O  20  
150 to  175 acres_____  22.  1  1  1  25  
175 to  2.00 acres____  18  o  2  -------------­ 20  
2.00 to  2.50 acres_____  22.  3  1  -------------­ 26  
250 to  800 acres_____  16  2  3  ------------­ 21  
300 to  400 acres----­ 12  3  2  1  18  
400 to  600 acres_____  10  1  1  -------------­ 12  
600 to  800 acres_____  2  4  ---------------------------­ 6  
800 to 1000 acres_____  7  O  ---------------------------­ 7  
1000 to 2000 acres_____  7  1  -----------­ 2  10  
!lJOO to SOOO acres_____  1  -----------•----------------------------­ 1  
3000 to 4000·acres____ _  O  -----------------------------------------­ O  
4000 to 5000 acres---c­ 1  --------------------------­ 1  2  

1~~~~-1-~~~-1-~~~-1-~~~-1-~~~­
-.ltals ------------355 32 36 11 434 
By "holding" is meant the total real estate possessions owned by an individual in this area. For instance, Mr. 0 owns 7 farms in this area of 89, 120, 80, 1360, 209, 80, and 80 acres, respectively. His total acreage or holding is 2018 acres and is placed in the 2000-3000 acre group. 
An attempt was made to separate the lands rendered by country dwellers from those rendered by city residents. The only guide was the address of the owner. If given as "Austin" or with a street address it was presumed that the owner lived in Austin. All addresses on rural post offices or rural free deliveries were classed as rural residents and the holdings put into the ''rural holdings'' column. However, this does not give a true picture of the absentee landlord situation. One large estate is under a manager and his address placed this holding in the rural resident column, whereas it is really owned and held by a city resident. Several landowners live on a rural free delivery just out of Austin, but their farms are sixteen miles or so out in the country. For these reasons it is impos­sible to get at the holdings of non-residents who are absentee land-owners by virtue of residence in the city. Table XLI per­haps presents a truer pictu11e. 
By "non-residents" in the sense that the tax records use the term, is meant those living outside of the jurisdiction of the county. This may mean a farmer whose house is on a farm in Caldwell County, but who owns a farm adjoining in Travis County. He is really a resident farmer as far as the absentee landowner situation is concerned. 
'rhe large number of holdings in the "one-to twenty-acre" column is due to a large number of renditions of a few acres or less located in the suburbs o:f' Austin, or in the villages where they are the sites of stores, blacksmith shops, dwellings, etc. About 25 per cent of these axe one-acre or less in size. Omitting these, the 100-125 acre holding is the most numerous, followed by the 80-100 and 60-80 acre tracts. About 25 per cent of the 434 holdings may be considered large farms, of 200 acre8 or more. Three per cent are tracts of land of 1000 acres or more. Most of these are the property of resident owners, worked by negro or Mexican tenants. One large tract does not appear in the survey, the "Walker Properties" farm, which is devoted to truck and worked by hired labor and therefore does not represent the usual farm conditions. 
Sizes of Farms Operated and Pe'rcentage Under Cultivation. In Table XLIV are shown the facts concerning acreage held by owners, tenants of the different races, the average size of their farms, and the percentage of the farm under cultivation. 
TABLE XLIV 
SIZE OF FARMS AND CULTIVATED AREAS WORKED 
Race and class.  Number.  Per cent of total.  Acreage.  Per cent of total.  Averagesize farm.  Per cent cultivated.  
White owners______ White tenants_____ Negro owners______ Negro tenants_____ Mexicans ---------­ 130 116 23 88 47  32: 29 5 ~ 12  16,74~ 13, 700 1,93!1: 5,939 3,601  40 33 4 14 9  128.4 118.6 8~.o 67.4 76.7  85 79 83 93 95  
Totals  --------­ 404  100  41 ,973  100  103.4  85  
All All  owners_________ tenants________  153 251  37 63  18,674 23,299  44 56  122.0 92.8  84 85  

An examination of Table XLIV will show that while the white owners constitute but 32 per cent of the total 404 farm­el'8 interviewed, they operate 40 per cent of the total acreage. The same relation holds in the case of the white tenants; 29 per cent operate 33 per cent of the total acreage. The reverse is true of all the others, especially in the case of the negro ten­ants. Here 22 per cent of the total number of farmers operate only 14 per cent of the total acreage. The same story is told when the average sizes of the farms are compared. The negro tenant's farm is just a.bout half of the size of the white owner's. 
The same facts are shown in another form in Table XLV. The usual farm of the whites, or the "modal" farm, is from 80 to 100 acres. When the arithmetic average is taken, the 16 farms of over 200 acres bring the figures above 125 acres. The most ·common sized farm of the negroes is from 40 to 60 acres, but there are almost as many 60 to 80 acres in size. The Mexicans cultivate the 40-60 and the 100-124 acre sizes. 
TABLE XLV 
NUMBER OF ACRES WORKED 
(}-19 
20-39 
4(}-59 
00-79 
~991~124
125-149100-174 
175-199 
200+ 
Race 
acres 
acres 
acres 
acres 
acres 
acres 
acres 
ac;res 
acres 
acres 
12 
2 
16
2151622 
9 
10
White -----------------­
2 
0 
l
9 
26 
Z1 
9 
10 
1 
3
l!ieirr.:> ------------------­
3 
0 
0
5 
13 
5 
4 
17 
2 
2
Mexican ---------------­
O 
Tenant farms have a higher percentage of cultivated land than those of owners. Colored tenants do not care to rent land that is wooded or mere pasture, because they must make every acre yield a profit. They are most familiar with cotton cultiva­tion and are wanted for that purpose. With the white tenants it is somewhat different, for they have less cultivated area than even the owners. This is mainly due to the fact that there were a few cases where tenants had large wooded tracts and pastures, and several cases where the tenant cultivated but a small part of his farm. 
The figures in the diagram and tables must be taken with reservation. Farmers are not in a position to give an accurate statements of the number of acres in the various crops. In some cases where these crop acreages were added up they exceeded or were short of the figure previously given as the total cultivated area. This matter is complicated by the system of sub-renting. Mr. F., for instance, rented about 120 acres from his landlord who lives in Austin. Finding this too much to work, he sub-rented some to a negro who worked this part of the farm on halves. He could only estimate the acreage that he operated himself and 
TOTAL ACE.RAGE OPERATED BY 404 FARMERS 
BY NEGRO TE.NANTS "41­

rn:IlJon1e.R CRoP5 • LANO NOT IN CVLTTVATIO"' 
Q c..onON 8GORN 
FIGURE VIII 
the amount so sub-rented. On one large farm the father worked a part himself, rented the rest to his sons on the third and fourth, who in turn sub-rented in whole or in part to Mexican croppers. It was very hard for them to state the acreage being operated by the three types of farmers represented on just this one farm. Consequently, the figures are not absolutely correct, but represent conditions fairly accurately. 
CHAPTER XVII 
CONSERVATION OF LAND 
VINCENT LANFEAR 
Where land is abundant the question of conservation is of very little importance, since new areas can be taken into cultiva­tion as the old ones become unproductive. That is, abundance of land facilitates extensive cultivation. But with the appro­priation of all the productive areas, intense cultivation and conservaton become an economic necessity. 
The area surveyed has emerged from the era of extensive cultivation. Land now sells for $100 to $125 an acre in the Houston black clay belt and in other productive and fertile soil areas. However, if a soil is not showing any sign of de­creasing fertility or of deterioration by washing, over-cropping, or lack of rotation, the question of increasing its fertility or con­serving it is not important; in fact, it would not be profitable farm management to attempt it. 
In order to learn whether the soil is decreasing in fertility and why it has become less productive, the following questions were asked of the farmers interviewed: ''Is your land increas­ing in fertility 1 Why 1'' The answers to these questions are tabulated in Table XLVI. 
TABLE XLVI 
DECREASE OF SOIL FERTILITY 
Class 
White owners_____ White tenants______ Negro owners______ 
tenants_____Negro
Mexicans ---------­
Total_________ 
Is fertll!ty of soil 
increasing? 
Number 
answering 
lat 76 16 46 18 
260 
Answering
"no" 
'71% 
69 
87 
70 
78 
71% 
Worn out 
10 7 0 1 2 
20 
Reasons for decrease 
No 
fert!lizer 
8 
11 2 6 
2 
29 
Washing  No rotation  
14 7 1 9 1  0 1 2 2 0  
32  I)  

The larger per cent answered that the land was not increas­ing in fertility and a great many said that it was decreasing. This certainly should ·not be the case in a black land b.elt where the soil is deep and naturally fertile. Washing and lack of fertilization are the chief reasons given for this decrease, both of which could be prevented by good farm practice. Those that answered ''worn out'' might have meant either a failure to fer­tilize or soil washing. The lack of rotation is also important because this is a cotton country and corn and other crops oc­cupy less than 35 per cent of the cultivated area. This makes a definite system of rotation difficult. Non-resident landlords find it hard to get away from the ''one-crop-cotton'' system, because other crops are hard to handle under the ishare sys­tem. {See page 82.) That rotation is beneficial is generally admitted. ''Where corn is followed by cotton, the cotton does better," was the testimony of a mail carrier who had observed conditions for several years. He mentioned one particular cot­ton patch that had never grown any other crop. On either side were fields that had been in corn the year before and on these the cotton was from a half a foot to a foot higher than on the patch that had never seen rotation. 
A few farmers said that the land had not decreased in fer­tility or . was actually increasing in productiveness. Of those that gave reasons for this increase, 64 per cent said it was due to fertilization, 33 per cent that they used improved methods and one man mentioned rotation. 
Fe1·tilization. From Table XLVI it is evident that fertili­zation is a very important factor in soil management. The "black soil" of Texas is still so rich that it does not always re­spond to fertilizers, but the barnyard manure, cotton stalks, weeds and other vegetable matter ought to be reduced to the soil to add the ever decreasing supply of humus. The practice of burning cotton stalks is still very common in this area.• The data in the table show, however, that the farmers are agreed that lack of fertilization is responsible for a great deal of loss in soil fertility, and on the other hand, their -experience goes 
*This practice is often made necessary in order to destroy the boll weevil. 
to show that proper fertilization aids in building up the soil. Table XLVII shows the extent to which various kinds of fer­tilizers are used on the farms in this area. 
TABLE XLVII 
NUMBER OF FARMERS USING FERTILIZERS 

Only a comparatively small number of the 400 or more farmers interviewed answered the question in regard to fertilizers. This would indicate that the majority not answering the ques­tions did not use fertilizers and the percentages in the table are far too high for the total number of farmers. 
About 47 per cent of the farmers reported the use of barn­yard manure, but of these fully one-third said they used it very little. (For their gardens mostly.) The figures for gr-een ma­nure ar-e very high, but it should be noted that "green manure" was commonly taken to mean the plowing under of trash or any plants, such as weeds, stalks, etc. In but one case was any crop planted for the exclusive purpose of being turned under. Only 15 per cent of the few who answered reported the planting of peas and none of these plowed them under for fertilizer. Less than three per cent used commercial fertilizers. 
·Comparing the various groups of farmers in regard to fer­tilization, it is at once evident that the white owners lead all 
the others in this respect.  
Soi1-Washdng and Drainage.  As  shown in  Chapter II,  the  
soils and rainfall of this  area  are  such that  practically  th-e  
whole  territory  is  subject  to  severe  erosion.  The  torrential  

rains carry away the easily washed soils and produce the enor­
mous gullies that are seen on so many hillsides. Some fa.r:n1S are so level or of such a nature that there is little washing, but less than 10 per cent of the 292 farmers said that their farms were not subject to erosion. It is impossible to estimate the acreage of the fields that have been made useless by this soil waste. Where the cotton and corn rows run up and down the slope the constant cultivation aids the work of running water in summer. The winters are not severe enough to freeze the soil, so that erosion goes on the whole year round. Pastures and hay fields are not so likely to be washed, but these form but a small part of the average cotton farm. Table XLVIII presents some facts on this subject. (See the appendix for il­lustrations of soil washing.) 
TABLE XLVIII 
SOIL WASHING AND DRAINAGE 
Prevention of soil washing  Drainage  
Class  Number answering  Number saying Per cent "not attemptingnecessary'' prevention  Number answering  Per cent draining  Number ditching  
White  owners______  92  10  53%  71  15.5%  17  
White  tenants____ _  84  10  41  75  24 .0  7  
NegroNegro  owners__ ___ _ t•nants_____  20 68  2 5  45 47  8 50  25.0 24.0  2 11  
Mexicans  ---------­ 28  1  46  14  7.0  5  
Total  --------­ 292  28  48%  218  21.()%  42  

The most striking fact to be noted is the large number of those who do nothing to prevent washing. About 51 per cent of those who reported on this subject said they did not try to stop erosion. If all the farmers had answered this question,· the ratio would likely be still higher. As in the case of fertiliza­tion, the white owners were the ones who did the most to con­serve their soil by preventing washing. Most of the farmers merely filled in the gullies with trash, weeds and rocks. Only four used the modern method of terracing to prevent the forma­tion of gullies. Others mentioned damming, plowing aroun·d slopes, and planting cane in the gully to catch the earth as it is carried down. In .one case a stone embankment was built to catch the soil at the foot of the slope. (See illustration in ap­pendix.) 
The second part of the table shows the extent of artificial drainage that has been used in the farm practice of this region. This table is not very satisfactory because the word "drainage" was not clear to the farmers unless the kind of drainage was explained by the enumerator. This was especially true in the case of the negro and Mexican farmers. 
The information is rather scant. This is partly due to the fact that a great deal of the land is rolling and there is no need of ditches and tile drains. This is why so many answered that they had ''natural drainage.'' All of the ''artificial'' drainage was by means of open ditches, but only 39 per cent of those giving thP. kind of drainage said that they had ditches and this is only 19 per cent of those answering on the subject of drain­age at all. It is noteworthy that 40 per cent of the farmers who did ditching were white owners. 
Conservation of Moisture: Irrigation. As a rule, the sum­
mers of Travis County are dry and the crops suffer. The chap­
ter on "Risk and Crop Failure" (Chapter III) shows that a 
large percentage of the crop-failures in this section are due to 
drought. Good farm practice would minimize these risks and 
an attempt was made to learn from the farmers what they did 
to conserve the moisture. The largest per cent of those answer­
ing said ''cultivation'' was the means used. Others were more 
specific and said they used deep plowing, breaking early, har­
rowing, or constant plowing. Out of a total number of 174 
farmers answering on this point over 65 per cent said they cul­
tivated to conserve moisture, but the number who gave specific 
kinds of cultivation was not sufficiently numerous to warrant 
tabulation. Only 5 per cent said that such cultivation was not 
necessary. 
Only three cases of irrigation were reported ; two of these 
w.ere for the garden only, but one was a project of consider­
able size. A study of the rainfall, and water supply of this 
region will easily show why but little irrigation was possible. 
Weeds. No statistics were gathered on this subject, but ob­
servation and the voluntary testimony of farmers go to show 
T-S. 
that weeds (especially Johnson grass) are important factors on many of the farms in this area. Cockleburs are found in many of the cotton fields but they are not to be compared to Johnson grass as noxious weeds. Tenants do not care to rent land that is ''poisoned'' with Johnson grass and in some places it is a custom to let a tenant have all or four-fifths of the cotton made on such fields on the condition that he cultivate the place and try to rid it of the weeds. Tenants sometimes rent just long enough to ''poison'' a farm and then move on. Like fertilizing and the prevention of washing, this is a difficult problem, one that calls for the expenditure of time and labor and a matter very hard to adjust in a rent contract. 
Conclusions. A study of these tables shows that in general the white farmers are more proficient in conserving their soils along the lines investigated than the other races. This state­ment needs to be qualified, however, because the number of negro owners and Mexicans was a good deal smaller than the numbers of other classes and averages so obtained are not as accurate as those based on a large number of cases. On the other hand, it is probable that if a larger number of negro and Mexican farmers had been studied there would be a still greater deficiency for these two classes of farmers. 
The white owners are more progressive than the tenants or the negro owners. Tenants do not care to put time and labor into fertilizing, filling up gullies, drainage or killing weeds any more than they care to put up barns, houses or fences. None of these can be taken away with them when they move to the next farm. Such expenditures bring long-time returns instead of the immediate profit for the year which the renter wants. Longer tenure, with a proper contract between tenant and.land­owner and reimbursement for all improvements made· should the tenant leave the farm before he has realized his full pro'fit, are factors in the solution of the problem of conserving the soil on a tenant farm.• 
*See University of Texas Bulletin No. 39:1915, "Studies in the Land Problem in Texas," p. 53, on "Compensations for Improve­ments," "Fertility of the Soil," etc. · 
CHAPTER XVIII 
THE MAKETING OJ!' FARM PRODUCE AND THE PUR­CHASE OF FEED AND SEED 
GEO. S. WEHRWEIN 
The Marketing of Cotton• 
It is impossible to get a true picture of the marketing of cotton in Travis County by studying the seasons of 1914 to 1916. As Figure IX shows, the prices for 1914-15 were abnormally low, and those of 1915-16 rather above the normal, due to the European war and the great rise in prices of all commodities in 1916. For comparison, the prices of 1911-12 were platted on the same diagram, using Galveston ''spots,'' which are some­what higher than San Antonio prices for the same day. The information for 1915-16 is incomplete because a great many farmers were still "scrapping" cotton, i. e., picking the cotton that had opened late in the season, and a great deal of it was being marketed while the survey was being made. 
Prices. It is interesting to note the "autumnal dip" in cot­ton prices in the three curves; even in a year of rising prices such as 1915-16 there was a decline lasting from the middle of October to December. "If one will take the pains to consult the records for the whole period of cotton production since the war between the States, he will find the same :fluctuation with slight variation," said Mr. Clarence Ousley. t "It all means that by the old system of marketing we are losing $5 to $25 a bale a year, because we are compelling the world to buy in three months a crop consumed in 12 months.'' By comparing the 
*The statistical study of the marketing of cotton was begun by Professor L. H. Haney and finished by the writer. 
tSan Antonio Express, July 18, 1915. This article has an excellent diagram showing this autumnal dip for the seasons 1901-1913, taken from "Commerce and Finance," September 3, 1913. A study of the chattel mortgages reveals the fact that from 60 to 70 per cent of these become due in September, October and November, just at the time when this "dip" occurs. See Bulletin 1915:21, University of rexas, "Studies in Farm Tenancy," Chapter IV and pages 105~6. 
price curve• with the part of the diagram showing the time of marketing of cotton it will be seen that the Travis County farm­ers were no exception to the rule. 
-


FIGUHE IX 
The prices actually received by farmers were not reported very definitely. Many farmers gave the price received as " 6 to 8 cents,'' others gave the exact figure. Taking only the figures 
*The prices in the diagram were averaged for every seven or eight days (four times a · month.) before they were platted. They were taken from the dally reports of the San Antonio Express except 1911-12, when no San Antonio "spots" were reported by this paper, and the figures as reported by the Galveston News for that city were averaged and platted in the same manner. · 
where a definite price was mentioned, 36 per cent of the farmers received 7 or 7 and a fraction cents a pound for the cotton marketed in the fall of 1914. About 24 per cent received 6 (or 6+) cents and another 24 per cent received 8 (or 8+) cents for their cotton. Others reported prices ranging from 4 to 11 cents. 
In 1915 prices were better. Of the cotton sold in the fall of 1915 up to about December 1, about 40 per cent of the farmers sold their cotton at 10 to 10 and a fraction: cents a pound. Thirty per cent of the farmers ·sold their cotton at 11 (or 11+) and about 14 per cent at 9 cents a pound. Other prices ranged from 7 to 13 cents. 
Time of Marketing: Holding. The lower half of figure IX is based on the schedules obtained for the 1914-15 season. In not a few cases the farmers could not tell exactly in which of the fall months they marketed their cotton and usually said ''in the fall," "as soon as picked," or "as soon as ginned." All such sales were placed with September, October, and November sales, but no sharp lines could be drawn between these three months, because the exact number of bales sold in each month could not be calculated. In spite of the fact that this was an abnormal year and the price of cotton was low, the great bulk of the cotton produced by the 411 farmers was put on the market in these three months. A total of 5256 bales was sold in this length of time, and only 1624 during the other nine months or held over into the 1915-16 season; in other words, 77 per cent of the entire crop was marketed in the picking season and only 23 per cent held for any length of time. Only 32 per cent of the farm­ers held any cotton beyond December 1 and about 16 per cent held their entire crop longer than the fall months. 
TABLE XLIX HOJ,DING OF COTTON: 1914 
; Number of farmers holding cotton, by months Class 
Number Per cent 
reporting holding 1 2 3 4 l_5 ~_1_ ~_:J2:.. White owners ______________ ~I~-9 6 -7 -2 3 4 3 0 ~ 6 White tenants_____________ 90 31.5 4 13 8 5 1 --------1 ---­
Negro owners______________ 20 25.0 0 1 2 1 1 -------------------­
ii~~;gan;en-~~~::::::::::::: ~ 1U ~ & i g:::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: Totals ---------------------;oa----;:o---16 24 -20 u 514-3---1 -1-6 Average price reported ===::==7cLlc & ,7.9c[7c 7.8c 9.3c 8.3c =7,5;; 
Table XLIX gives some idea of the length of time the 1913-14 crop was held. This table shows the number of farmers that reported sales aft.er December 1, 1914, and gave the month in which they sold it or the length of time held. Not all gave this information ; the number is less than these reporting holding cotton, from which the "per cent holding" was calculated. 
Any cotton that is not sold as soon as ginned or soon ther.e­aft.er is likely to be classed as "held" but the table shows that some cotton was sold throughout the year. The white owner group is the real holding class, few of the others held cotton beyond four months. Out of the relatively large number of negro tenants only about 18 per cent held cotton and none longer than four months. 
In 1915 fewer farmers held cotton than in 1914. Prices were better and cotton was being rushed on the market while the survey was in progress. About 39 per cent of the white owners had some cotton on hand about December 1, but only 8 per cent of their entire crop as compared with 22 per cent the year before. About 31 per cent of the white tenants had any crop left at this time, and only 2 per cent had the entire crop. About 14 per cent of the negro and Mexican farmers still had 
some cotton unsold_ 
Table XLIX also shows the prices reported by those who sold cotton after December 1, 1914. The average price received by the farmers who reported sales in December was 7 cents, Janu­ary 7.4 cents, etc. ("First month," "Second month," in Table XLIX). As the table shows, average prices for the other months were higher than in the fall, although some farmers reported sales as low as 6 cents in Ma.y. The price curve in Figure IX shows the upward movement of cotton prices during this sea­son and goes to show that those who held their cotton for a time as a rule secured higher prices. However, some sold during a temporary drop in the market or the cotton was of low grade, which may account for the ti-cent sales later in the season. 
In the case of the ''croppers'' the landlord usually sells the cotton and the question of marketing and holding lies with him. In 1914, 13 negrpes and 12 Mexicans did not market their crops and in many instances knew little about the sales or even the price. For this reason the figures for the negro and Mexican tenants are not quite accurate and those for the white owners are the more significant. The usual method is for the white owner to sell the cotton and retain his share for the rent and any ad­vances made during the year, and turn the rest over to the "cropper." 
Sheltering and Warehousing. "Country damage" is one of the big items of waste in the cotton business. It is estimated that the1·e is a loss of about $2.00 per bale of the entire cotton crop of the country due to damage to the bale because of expos­ure to the weather and lack of shelter. Table L gives some idea of the practice in this regard in the area surveyed. 
TABLE L 
SHELTERING AND WAREHOUSING OF COTTON 
1915. 
1914 
Class 
White owners-----------­
tenants____________
White 
owners____________
Negro
Negro tenants----------­Mexicans ---------------­
Total ---------------­
Total report-Ing 
40 
30 
6 lZ 1 
89 
Ex­posed 
16 
16 3 5 1 
41 
Shel­tered on 
Ware-farm 
house 
17  7  
10  4  
0  3  
5  2  
0  0  

1632 
Total report­ing 
40 32 4 10 
--3 
89 
Ex­posed 
35 
29 3 9 
--3 79 
Shel­tered on farm 
4 2 1 1 0 
8 
Ware­house 
1 
1 0 0 0 
2 
It shows the manner in which the 89 farmers that held cotton in 1914 and 1915 cared for their crop before marketing it. In 1914, 46 per cent of these men failed to shelter their cotton, while in 1915 almost 89 per cent fell in this group because few expected to hold for any length of time and did not take the trouble to put it under shelter. This is probably the usual prac­tice for all years when prices are reasonable and little cotton is held. 
Of those who sheltered their cotton on the farm in 1914, 27 had theirs in a barn or shed, 3 in a tent, and 2 in a nearby gin; in 1915 one used a tent. Three men said they put poles on the ground to keep the bales out of the mud, but did not cover the cotton. As a rule, the white farmers paid more attention to sheltering their cotton than the other classes. 
Sixteen out of the 89 farmers stored cotton in warehouses in 1914, but only two did so in 1915. Very little information was obtained as to the benefit of sheltering cotton in this way. Sev­eral of the farmers seemed to distrust the public wa"tehouses. "It is just a scheme to corner the market," said one, and an­other claimed that ''buyers think they can make farmers take any price. after the cotton is in the warehouse.'' 
However the experience of these two men may be contrary to those of the others who warehoused their cotton. Cotton Markets. Figure X shows that Austin is the great market for cotton in this area. 
NUMB~R OF FARMERS 
BVDA  100 I 0 ,asz .:SOLD IN AU.:STIN  
COTTON MARKETS OF  

 3ZI FARMERS  
1915  
IZ  BLVFF ~PRING$  

FIGURE X 
Almost 80 per cent of the farmers sold their cotton in Austin in both 1914 and 1915. Buda is second in importance. Creed­moor, Coulton, and Elroy are the most important places grouped under ''Others'' in the diagram. 
Cotton is usually sold to a buyer who deals almost exclusively in this product. Eighty-five per cent of the farmers reporting sales for 1914 and 1915 sold their crop to a buyer and the others to the ginners. 
Marketing of Cottonseed 
Unginned cotton consists of about 33 to 37 per cent lint, and from 63 to 67 per cent seed, so that for a bale of 500 pounds of ginned cotton there is a by-product of 750 to 800 punds of cotton seed. During the season of 1914-15 this seed sold at prices ranging from $7 to $28, the usual price as reported by the farmers ranging from $12 to $20. Almost 38 per cent of the farmers received $14 or $15 for their seed, the other prices being $12, $18, and $20, respectively. In 1915 cottonseed was high in price, but not to be compared to 1916. The lowest price reported by the farmers in 1915 was $11, the highest $40. Almost 20 per cent received $30 per ton for their seed and 11 per .cent were paid $36. Other common prices were $20, $40, and $25. 
Most of the farmers sold their seed to the ginners ( 43 per cent) while 37 per cent sold to a seed buyer, and 20 per cent directly to some oil mill during 1914-15. As in the case of cot­ton, Austin is the principal market for cotton .seed. The oil mills and most of the buyers are located here. During these two sea.sons 78 per cent of the farmers sold their seed in Austin, 9 per cent in Buda, 5 per cent in Manchaca, 5 per cent in Bluff Springs, and the remainder in .smaller places like Creedmoor, :rvfuntopolis, and DelvaUe. Some of the seed in the neighborhood of Elroy was sold co-operatively through the Elroy Seed Club in 1914. Few farmers reported the time of their sales, the most common statement being "fall" or "when ginned." Only two reported sales in November of 1914 and again in November, 1915, one sold in December, 1914, and four said "in winter." 
In 1914 about 25 per cent of the farmers stored some of their cotton seed, to some extent for sale during the winter, but usu­ally .for feeding purposes or for next year's planting. In 1915, 2 per cent had some stored for the same purposes ; all the rest went on the market during the season of high prices. 
Marketing of Corn. The marketing of corn for this area is not as important as cotton. There are a number of white farmers, however, who raise a good deal of corn and in a few cases their corn acreage almost equals their cotton acreage. The amounts sold ranged from 40 to 1000 bushels for white owners and from 30 to 700 bushels for the white tenants, the average being 265 and 138 bushels, respectively. The same owners who made these sales reported from 175 to 1300 bushels still on hand and the tenants 100 to 1000 bushels not sold when the survey was made. The average for the owners of corn on hand was 503 bushels, for the tenants 320. The amounts on hand and sold for the negroes and Mexicans could not be determined because they usually reported corn by ''loads. '' 
A few of these heavy corn growers tend to bring up the aver­ages. The number who sold corn is really quite small consid­ering the number of cases that gave information. Fifty white owners, thirty-five white tenants and thirty-one negro tenants gave no information at all, while that given by the Mexicans was too indefinite to be of value. 
TABLE LI 
MARKETING OF CORN, 1915 
Class 
owners________
White 
tenants________
White 
owners________
Negro 
tenants________ Mexicans 
Negro 
-----------· 
Total number reporting 
82 
82 
20 
50 
? 
Per cent .AveragePer cent keeping Average amount sold for feed price sold 
24 18 65c 
265 bushels 25 18 57c 138 bushels 
0 0 14 14 Mc ? ? 53c ­
A number gave the information that they were holding their corn for feed and seed; these figures are in addition to the ones reporting no corn sold. It must be remembered that the season of 1915-16 had just begun and before spring a number may have sold Bome of their corn. 

F.all prices ranged from 50 to 75 cents. Some white owners reported that some corn sold the spring before at prices ranging from 75 cents to $1.50. One man reported the sale of fine seed corn at $2.25 a bushel. These unusual sales bring up the aver­age for the white owners. 
Most of the corn marketed in this way goes to some buyer in town. A number of sales were reported to neighbors, a few by tenants to landlords or vice versa. 
With the exception of the cases mentioned where farmers raise corn side by side with cotton as a "money crop" most of the farmers do not raise enough corn and in many cases have to buy for their own use. 
The Purchase of Feed and Seed 
An examination of Figure VIII in the section of this bulletin dealing with the size of farms and the cultivated area, will show that the average farmer of Travis County has most of his land in cotton, the tenants as a rule more so than the owners. Fig-
TOTAL ACERAGE OF PRINCIPAL CROPS OF 404 FARMERS 
M,; •





--·••m••·············· 

FIGURE XI 
ure XI shows that fully 65 per cent of the acreage· in crops of the 404 farms surveyed was devoted to cotton, 26 per cent to corn, 5.7 to cane, and 3.3 to oats and other crops. 
The United States census figures for 1910 show that for the whole of Travis County the cotton acreage was 71 per cent of the total, corn 21 per cent, cane 6.6 per cent, and other crops only 1.1 per cent. The area surveyed of course is not typical of the whole county. There is no question but that the cam­paigns for diversification had some success and caused farmers to plant less cotton in 1915 than in previous years. This is discussed in another article, however. (See Chapter XIX.) 
TABLE LU 
BUYING OF FEED 
Class  Number  Per cent buying feed  Per cent who have feed furnished  Per cent of cultivated area Jn cotton  
White owners_________ __ ____________ White tenants---------------------­Negro owners______________________ _ Negro tenants_________ ____________ _ Mexicans ----------­-­-------------­ 114 93 24 43 27  ~ 36 75 60 41  0 1 0 12 7  68 63 70 74 81  

Table LII gives the percentage of their cultivated areas that the various classes of farmers have planted in cotton. The white owners have but 58 per cent of their cultivated area planted in the ''money crop'' and 42 per cent in feed crops. Only 37 per cent of them buy feeds. The negro owners have 70 per cent of their land in cotton and 75 per c.ent of them bought feed for their stock. The parallel holds good with all the other classes; the negro tenants do not buy in as many cases as the owners, but 12 per cent have their feed furnished them by the landlord. The Mexicans seem to be an exception, but of the total of 47 Mexicans that were interviewed only 27 gave answers to the questions on "feeds." Only about half of the negro tenants gave informa­tion, so that in these two cases the figures are probably more or less inaccurate. 
TABLE LUI 
NUMBER OF FARMERS WHO BOUGHT FEED: KIND 
Total Class buying Corn Hulla Meal Hay Bran Oats Other White owners____________ 42 ~--9--w---3---1---1---2­White tenants------------34 20 14 10 4 5 3 6 
Negro owners___ ________ _ 18 12 5 5 7 o o o Negro tenants------------~6 19 2 6 7 4 1 4 Mexicans ----------------11 4 1 1 4 4 1 2 
Of those buying feeds over 50 per cent (in all cases except the Mexicans) bought corn. The white owners bought on the average 81 bushels, the white tenants 78 bushels, negro owners 87 bushels, negro tenants 49, and the Mexicans 55 bushels. The usual price paid was $1.00 a bushel, the lowest price . mentioned was 35 cents, the highest $1.50. Over one-fourth of the white owners bought their corn from 50 to 60 cents a bushel, much below the average. 
In the case of hulls the white owners bought 4.8 tons per farmer on the average, whereas the white tenants averaged 7.4 tons. The negro owner's average purchase was 2.5, the tenant's 1.5, and the Mexican 's one ton. The usual price was about seven or eight dollars a ton, the highest price mentioned was $20, the lowest $6. Most of the white owners bought meal by the ton; the usual price paid was $30 to $35. The others usually bought by the 100 pound sack at the average price of $1.40 a sack. The amounts ranged from one to two tons up to 36 tons among the white farmers and from one to 50 sacks among those buying by the sack. 
Hay ranged from $6 to $17 a ton, the average being $11.95. 
One purchase of 150 tons of hay was reported by a white owner. 
Omitting this extreme case, the purchases ranged from 1 to 12 
tons, the average being about 4 tons. Feeds listed under "oth­
ers'' in the table included cane, chops, and ensilage. 
The year 1915 was a "diversification" year and perhaps the 
purchases of feed have been less than usual. A few of the feeds 
listed are probably bought to add to home-grown feeds to make 
a better ration, but the quantity so purchased is small when 
compared with f.eed bought that could have been raised at home. 
Purchase of Seed 
Some idea of the practice in regard to the purchase of seeds may be gained from the following table. The prices paid are an indication of the kind of seeds bought. 
TABLE LIV 
PURCHASE OF SEED 
Avera&"e
Number of farmers 
Num­

buyjni:

Class 
Total 
ber 
Cotton
report-
buying 
Cotton 
bushels

Ing 
Cane
seed 
seed 
Corn 
owners____________ 
19.8
White 
66
105 
78 
24
35
White· tenants____________ 
26.0
2I 
50
97 
34
70. 
Negro owners____________ 
27.1 
12
26 
12
17 
10
tenants____________Negro 
13.l
17 
29
60 
34 
13 
29.8
Mexicans 
IO
2
31 
12 
9 
amounts bought of 
Corn bushels 
2.9 
2.6 
3.0 
4.7 
2.0 
Cane bushMs 
15.0 
13.3 
12.8 
8.0 
12.1 
Of the total of 319 farmers, 211 reported that they bought seed of various kinds for planting, or over 64 per cent. Of the 211, 101 or 47 per cent, bought cotton seed, 76, or 36 per cent bought corn for seed and 79 per cent of 167 farmers bought cane seed. The proportion of the various classes of farmers buying seed may be found in the above table. In addition to those of the tenants who bought their own seed, 4 per cent of the white tenants had their seed furnished by the landlord, 26 per cent of the negroes, and 16 per cent of the Mexicans. As in the case of feeds, the information as to the negro and Mexican tenants is not complete because of the small number answering the ques­tions. Clover seed was reported by six white tenants, milo by two whites, alfalfa by one white owner. Sudan grass was re­ported by three, one a negro tenant. Oats for seed was re­ported by three white owners and one tenant, one negro owner and one negro tenant. 
The usual price paid for cotton seed was $1.00 a bushel. Many of the whites paid over $1.00, indicating the pur­chase of better seed. Ten reported as high as $2.50,. but the negroes and Mexicans in all but one case paid the usual price of $1.00. Corn ranged from 40 cents to $2.75; the price paid mostly, however, was $1.00. Eleven of the negroes and 18 whites paid over $2.DO a bushel for their seed corn. Cane seed varied from 65 cents to $2.50 a bushel. Over 50 per cent paid $1.00 for their cane seed and again more of the whites paid the higher prices, no doubt due to the fact that they appreciate the value of good seeds. 
Only a small number of farmers test their seed corn before planting it. Out of the 237 farmers reporting on this subject only 27 or 11.4 per cent said they made germination tests,-15 per cent of the white owners, 11.5 per cent of the white tenants, and about 7 per cent of the other classes of farmers. These per­centages are probably too high, for it seems that some understood "selecting" and not testing when asked this question. 
CHAPTER XIX 
CROPS AND DIVERSIFICATION IN TRAVIS COUNTY 
PAUL E. HARALSON 
This study of crop diversification has peculiar significance in at least two ways: First, as an effort to get at the real facts of diversification in Travis County; secondly, as a means of learning if the agitation for crop diversification in the winter and spring of 1915 bore any fruit. 
In the summer of 1914 the great Europe-an war practically re­stroyed the market for cotton. The price of that staple dropped from thirteen cents per pound in the fore part of July, 1914, to practically nothing in a very few weeks. The farmer whose sole crop was cotton found himself in a desperate situation. ms assets were practically unmarketable, and in what little market there was, the price was so low that it did not ray for the cost of production. In the present survey nearly all the farmers who answered the question as t'o savings reported not profit, but a loss for 1914. In the winter and spring months of 1915, an agitation for crop diversification was begun by the newspapers, farm parers, farmers', merchants', and bankers' organiz:ations. There is a conflict of opinion as to the fruit which that prop­aganda bore, and the primary aim of this little study is to give the facts for Travis County. 
A few notations made by the enumerators as to diversification were: 
"R. F. D. men say there is but little more diversification than usual. Tenants are not free to div,ersify, they must do as the landlords tell them. Soil is not adapted to other crops, yet they admit it will raise anything." "People are in a rut with cotton; need to be educated to the value of other crops and cultivation methods." 
Because the primary aim of this report was to determine what tangible result the diversification propaganda had, only those casefi were taken that reported crops grown for both the years 1915 and 1914. If the year 1915 was given and 1914 was not, or was reported so as not to be comparable, these cases were excluded, for it would not give, in the final results, a true com­rarison of the two years. 
TABLE LV 
AVERAGE ACREAGE OF VARIOUS CROPS GROWN 
Cotton, 
Oats, 
Cane,
Corn, 
average 
average
Total 
average 
average
Class 
acreage 
acreaire
number 
acreage 
acreage
of 
1914 
1915
1915 
1914 
1915
cases 
1914 
1915 
1914 
White owners_----____________ --_ 
82 
1 
2 
5 
8
102 
75 
67 
Z1 
5
1 
4
19 
27
88 
59 
60
White tenants __ ----------------­
'h 
owners____________________
Negro 
5
1
19 
13 
16 
3
58 
58
tenante___________________
Negro 
3
47 
12 
2
66 
43 
10 
'h 
'h 
"" 
Mexicans 
2 
2
Bl 
65 
55 
6 
14 
'N. 
'N. 
This table presents the average acreage for the crops usually grown in Travis County. Not all those reporting had planted oats or cane, but because of the relative frequency of such cases it was thought best to get the average on the basis of the total number of cases in each class. 
It will be noted from the table that in 1915 there was a general decrease in the cotton acreage, and a corresponding in­crease in the average of corn, oats, and cane. The white owners led in the increase in corn, oats, and cane acreage, and the Mex­ican tenants in the decrease of the cotton acreage. It is inter­esting to note that there was only one class that increased its average cotton acreage, i. e., the white tenants. This increase, however, was very slight, being only one acre, while their average corn acreage was increased by six acres. The negro owners' average cotton acreage was unchanged for the two years, yet their average corn acreage was increased by three acres. 
s-s. 
TABLE LVI 
NUMBER OF FARMERS RAISING S1.JDAN GRASS, MILO MAIZE AND HAY, 
1914-15* 
Hay
Sudan grass• 
Maize* 
1915 
1915 
1914 1915 
Class 
Total 
'l'otal 
Total I Total 
number Total 
number TGtal 
number Total number Total 
raising acreage 
raising acrenge 
raising acreage raising acreage 
White owners____________ 
7 
10 26 
3 80 3 132 
White tenants____________ 4 6 8 
2 29 4 44 
Negro owners ____________ ----------------3 ll'h
Negro tenants____________ 1 1 2 l'h 1 12 2 13 Mexicans -------------------------------------------------1 8 1 9 
TotaL _______________ --7---1-2 ---2-1-1-4-7---7_ l2iJ _1_0-~ 
This table presents crops usually grown in Travis County. It will be noted that in m.ilo maize and hay acreage there was an aprreciable increase in 1915 over that of 1914. Sudan gras.s was not grown in 1914, and it seems to have been an experiment rather than a crop in 1915. It is interesting to note that none of the negro owners had any hay crop either in 1914 or 1915. 
TABLE LVII 
NUMBER OF FARMERS HAVING ORCHARDS AND GARDENS 
Orchards  Gardens  
Clas~  Number reporting  Per cent havine­orchards  Number reporting  Per cent with gardens  
White owners_______________________ White tenants---------------------· Negro owners----------------------· Negro tenants______________________ Mexicans -------------------------­ 76 43 1040 10  45 19 20 5 10  120 70 16 47 16  93 81 62 68 56  

In compiling the above data the term "orchard" was made to include a group of fruit trees, whatever their number. An attempt was made to determine the kind of orchard, whether peach, pear, plum, etc., but the raucity of the data obtained 
*No Sudan grass or milo maize reported for 1914. 
prevents any conclusions. Outside of the white owners' class, there was practically a total absence of any kind of orchard. Perhaps the early budding of fruit trees in this section of the State, and the late frosts, are responsible for this. One farmer, in discussing this point, said: "Fruit trees grow splendidly, but live only 5 or 6 years." This fact, too, may be one of the causes for the absence of orchards. 
The term ''garden'' in the above table, includes separate plats of ground given over to the cultivation of vegetables. An effort was made to find the size of the gardens, but with no success. The enumerators simply answered the question­''yes,'' ''none,'' ''little,'' etc. Concerning gardens one farmer reported: ''Gardens are not a success every year. Pests are the worst trouble. No market for the stuff when we do raise it." But on a whole, a large per cent of the farmer.s have a garden of some description. The most notable point is the fact that the negroes and Mexicans show such a relatively low per­centage of farmers with gardens. 
The schedules disclosed a few isolated cases where other crops were grown, but the number is negligible. Among the white owners were found the following: Six farmers planted a total of 33 acres feterita; two planted a total of 3 acres in peas; one planted 3 acres in cantaloupes; one planted 25 acres in watermelons ; one planted 3 acres in kaffir corn ; one planted 1 acre in rape; one planted 20 acres in alfalfa. 
Among the white tenants, the following: three planted a total of 2 acres in feterita; one planted 10 acres in watermelons. Amorrg the negro tenants: one planted one acre of feterita. 
CHAPTER xx 
LIVESTOCK 
HERBERT SCHARFF 
Four hundred and fifteen farmers reported on livestock on their farms. Only three had any sheep ; and turkeys, geese, pigeons, and ducks were not reported in ·sufficient numbers to warrant tabulation. 
TABLE LVIII 
PER CENT OF FARMERS REPORTING LIVESTOCK 
Rece  and  class  ITotal  Cows  Hogs  Horses  Mules  Chickens  
----­ --­- 
White  owners__________________:  137  95%  96%  95%  93%  95%  
White NegroNegro  tenants-----------------1 and Mexican owners___tenants_________________  113 26 91  87 85 69  86 85 84  89 " 58 81  87 85 64  81 85 81  
Mexican  tenants---------------!  48  ~9  73  67  75  73  

Table L VIII shows the per cent of farmers reporting the val'ious kinds of livestock. The white owners and white tenant farms are well stocked in comparison with those of the other classes. Only about 5 per cent of the white owners and from 11 to 19 per cent of the tenants have no livestock. The greatest scarcity of animals is among the Mexican tenants, for only 14 of the 48 Mexican tenants have cows, and only 11 of this number have milk cows, leaving 37 of these people that either must do without milk and butter or decrease their income by buying these foods. About 35 per cent of the negroes and Mexicans are half-croppers and have no draft animals of their own but use those of the landlords, which accounts for the low percentage of such animals among these farmers. 
Social and Economic Survey of Soidhern Travis County 115 TABLE LIX TOTAL NUMBER OF FARM ANIMALS REPORTED 
Olass  (Jattle  ..logs  Horses  Mules  Chickens  
WhJte owners___ _____ White tenants________ Negro and Mexican  1,138 613  1,406 7W  339 206  680 427  6,858 4,758  
owners ----------­Negro tenants________ Mexican tenants_____  81 146 22  136 417 128  52 132 43  87 191 115  1,075 2,062 630  
Totals  ----------­ 2,000  2,816  77Z  1,500  15,383  

Table LIX shows the total number of farm animals reported by the various farmers. It will be noticed that the white owners have about half of the animals in the area surveyed, with ex­ception of the mules and poultry. It is interesting to note that there are twice as many niules as horses in thiR area. 
TABLE LX 
AVERAGE NUMBER OF FARM ANIMALS PER FARM, OF THOSE REPOH'I'· 
ING SUCH ANIMALS 
All cattle
Class 
owners______ 
8.7
White 
tenants_____
White 
6.2 
owners______
Negro 
3.7 
tenants_____ 
2.3
Negro 
1.5
Mexicans ---------­
Milch cows 
4.9 
3.8 
2.3 
2.0 
1.2 
Hogs 
10.6 
7.5 
6.1 
5.4 
3.8 
Horses 
2.2 
2.0 
3.5 
1.7 
1.3 
·-­
Poultry
Mules 
·-­
5.3 
52.7 
4.3 
50.0 
3.9 
48.8 
3.2 
27.8 
3.0 
18.0 
Table LX shows the average number of the various farm animals per farm of those who reported livestock. The number of cows per farm among the white farll).ers is so much larger than the others because there are three white owners who re­ported nearly 100 cows, and the same thing is true of four white tenants, who reported large numbers of cows. If these large cattle owners were left out, the average number per farm would be smaller and would come nearer corresponding to what the majority had. Attention is called to the fact that owners as a class have more horses than the others. 
'l'ABLE LXI 
VALUE OP !~ARM ANIMALS AS REPORTED BY 415 FARMERS 


Averai:e value per 
Average value per head Class 
Total farm re-
Mules
Horsesporting Hogs
value 
Cattle 


owners_____ __ $138,634 
$114.10 White 
$104.60 
$ 8.80
$1,001 $'27. 00
White 
tenants______ 
135.90 Negro owners_______ 
92.50
10.30 
40.20
77,864 
688 
124.50 Negro 
77 .00
66:) 
8.90 
H,738 31.70 
tenants______ 
98.30
62.00
7 .50 
27,428 
435 
32.50 
tenants____ 
107 .80
68.40 
6.70
Mexican 
9,175 
191 
36 .40 
Chickens 
$(U7 
0.46 
0.44 
C.39 
0.34 
The white owners have almost twice as much invested in farm animals as the white tenants, nearly eight times as much as the negro owners, five times as much as the negro tenants, and fifteen times as much as the Mexican tenants. Judging by the average value of all farm animals per farm, the white owners still head the list, the amount decreasing rapidly with the other classes of farmers. 
The second part of the table is rather unsatisfactory. It shows the average value of these various animals as reported by the farmers themselves. While the white owners' estimate of the value of their cows average at $27, the white tenants' average is $40.20, and those of the other classes vary from $31.70 to $36.40. It is not probable that the white owners' cows are worth less than those of the other farmers, but these men estimated their animals more conservatively than the others. The same holds true of the other animals except in the case of horses. These discrepancies affect the ''total value'' and the "value per farm," making these figures lower for white owners than they ought to be. 
The prices as given by all the farmers are too low. An average cow sells for more than $40, mules for more than $125, and horses $150. As in the case of land values, there was a tendency to undervalue property because the owner feared that the data would be used for taxation purposes. 
Fully nine-tenths of the cows reported were Jersey cows. This does not mean that they were blooded stock, but the figures represent all types and grades having some Jersey blood. A 
Social and Economic Survey of Southern Travis County 117 
few Herefords, Durhams, and Holsteins were mentioned. The prevailing breed of-hogs is the Poland China. Others in the order of their importance are Berkshi-i:e, Duroc Jersey, "Red Jersey," and "Black and White." There are few pure bred horses in the territory surveyed. 
A total of forty-two pure bred bulls were reported, 21 be­longing to white owners, 19 to white tenants, and 2 to negro owners. Of the thirty-two pure bred boars, 19 were reported by the white owners, 11 by white tenants and two by negro owners. Eight stall:iQns (of which seven were owned by the whites) and a few pure bred roosters were also mentioned. On the whole, the livestock in this area is not of high grade pure bred type. 
TABLE LXII 
NUMBER OF FARMERS REPORTING SALES OF ANIMALS ANll ANIMAL PRODUCTS 
Class 
Total 


owners_____ ____ _ 
137
White 
tenants__________ 
113
white 
owners__________ 
26 
Negro 
tenants__________ 
91
Negro
Mexicans -------------­
Mules 
3 
(• 
0 
0 
2 
Hogs 
37 13 
4 
6 
I) 
I 

Horses 
6 
z 
0 0 0 
Cattle 
~7 
22 
4 
10 1 
Milk 
and 

butter EggsChickens 
72 
28 
67 56 
13 
38 
20 
10 8 
7 
6 
17 1 
21 
4 
Table LXII shows the number of farmers that sold animals or animal products during the past year. Only 26 per cent of the white owners sold any cattle; however, they sold 71 per cent of the 354 head that were marketed in this area. Twenty-si~ per cent of the white owners reported the sale of hogs during the past year and these men sold almost 58 per cent of the 306 hogs put on the market. Only 52 per cent sold any butter or niilk and 49 per cent sold eggs. 
Of the 113 white tenants, 19 per cent sold cattle, marketing 18 per cent of the total; 11 per cent sold 29 per cent of the hogs, and only 49 per cent sold any butter or milk and 33 per cent sold eggs. 
The other classes of farmers sold even less. The figures go 
to show that livestock does not occupy a prominent place in the farm economy of the cotton farmer, and that the income from livestock is small compared to that of the "money crop." The white owner is the only one that owns and markets livestock or animal products to any extent, and he surpasses the white tenant and the other classes of farmers by a large margin. 
TABLE LXIII 
AVERAGE NUMBER OF FARM ANIMALS PER 100 .ACRES OF CULTIVATED AREA (OF THOSE REPORTING ANIMALS) 
Class 
Cattle 
Poultry
Milch cows 
Hogs 
Horses 
Mules 
White owners______ 
7.9 
2.0 
4.9 
48.0 
4.4 
4.6 
tenants_____White 
6.6 
4.0 
53 .0 
l".9 
2.2 
4.5 
Neg;ro owners______ 
5.3 
3.3 
3 .1 
6.1 
5.4 
6.5 .
tenants_____ 
3.6 
2.2
Neirro 
8.6 
2.7 
5.0 
4.4 
Table LXIII shows the amount of livestock owned by the various classes of farmers on the basis of 100 acres of cultivated area. On this basis the negroes show up better than the whites in the case of some of the farm animals-mules and horses especially. But if we take as a standard animal unit, and one that is generally taken, a cow, a horse, a mule, 5 hogs, arid 100 hens, we find that there is one animal unit to 6.1 acres among white owners; 1 to 6.3 acres among the white ten­ants; 1 to 5.5 acres among negro owners; 1 to 7.9 among negro tenants ; and 1 to 11.8 acres among the Mexican tenants. It is generally considered that a farm that has only one animal unit to every six acres is lightly stocked. Taking this as a basis we find that every farm is lighty stocked except the farms of the negro owners, and the number of such farms is small. In -calculating the number of animal units per acre, it has been as­-sumed there were no calves or colts. In obtaining the data, colts and calves were grouped under horses and cows, respec­tively, and as there is no way to get at the number of calves and colts, it has been necessary to count them as horses and -cows. On 415 farms there are bound to be some colts and calves, and if it tal;.as 2 calves or colts to equal an adult 
animal, then it would follow that the farms are more lightly stocked than the :figures given show. 
This light-stocking of farms means loss in efficiency, both in maintenance of fertility and in cost of operation. It means a loss of labor, for there are not enough animals per laborer. One can can work two horses practically as easily as one, and if hP has only one, he is losing part of his labor. In order to remove this loss, either the number of acres per farm should be cut down or the number of animals should be increased. 
CHAPTER XXI 
IMPLEMENTS AND MACHINERY 
REX BAKER 
The land embraced in this survey is for the most part level or slightly rolling. It is on the whole remarkably free from rocks or other impediments to the free use of farm machinery on a large scale, the chief exception being the Houston grav­elly area. There are no stumps to speak of and the land lies in the broad expanse of rolling prairies to the southeast of Austin. Hence one would naturally expect to find an extensive use of fa.rm machinery. 
It should be remembered, however, that the farms are of only moderate size, and that, although farming is not done in­tensively, each farmer operates independently so far as farm equipment is concerned. Then we should naturally expect to find the ordinary implements of husbandry required for raising much cotton and little corn or less cane. Farmers in this region are still largely in the grip of the one-crop habit, and of course employ machinery indispensable to the cultivation of cotton. 
The following table exhibits the totals for all the more im­portant farm implements and machinery on the farms embraced in this survey. 
TABLE LXIV 
NUMBERS AND VALUE OF FARM MACHINERY (NOT INCLUDING MINOR 
TOOLS) 






Average I Total 1 sized 
No. of 
Number Value Value 
Per cent
Class 
Number farm 
farm im­
per 
per per havingworked 
plem~nts 
farm farm 
acre 
shelter 
OW:\'ERS \":hite -----------­l3J 128.4 
l ,732 
13.3 
$431.00 
$3.43 
43.9.
24 
84 .0 
227 
9.4
Negro -----------­
184 .60 
2.20 
20.8
105.2 
18

1\.lexican ---------­
9 120.50 
1.14 
0156 
H9.2 
1,977 
U.7
All ---------------­
389.70 3.27 
39.7 
TENANTS ~hite _______ _____ 1~ 
1;g:~ 
1.m 
~·i6 
$2~.10 
$2.26 
2.41 71 
10·2
Mee~~o -----------­
44 
76.7 
212 
4.8 
33'5
l.3l
. 1can ---------­
. . 5 1.09 
4.5 All ---------------­
284 
fn.6 
2,312 
6.9 
171 .67 
1.96 
15.7 
Grano totaL­
. 40.J 
~9!~--9.-1-$255:861~1~ 
Social and Econornic Sun;ey of Southern Travis County 121 
It will be seen that on the 404 farms there was invested in larger farm tools $103,369. This made an average investment per farm of $255.86, or $2.47 per acre cultivated. Furtherfore, it should be noted that in every instance whites, whether owner11 or tenants, were best equipped with farm machinery, whether considered from the. standpoint of totals or per farm or per acre. Mexicans and negro owners and tenants in each instance were much more poorly equipped. 
All told, there were 48 farmers out of the 404 who had no farm machinery aside from the smaller hand tools. Most of the white tenants owned farm machinery, there being only 5 who did not, or 4.1 per cent of the total number of white tenants listed. Mexican tenants were less fully supplied, for 24.1 per cent of them owned no farm machinery whatever. This condi­tion is explained by the fact that so many are ''croppers.'' A still larger percentage of the negro tenants were in this condi­tion-28.4 per cent. 
Attention is called to the further fact that few, indeed, of the farmers sheltered their farm tools. Here again the whites were most careful. But of all groups and classes only 25 per cent pretended to find shelter for their tools. Owners said it did not pay to go to the expense of furnishing shelter for their own and tenants' tools. 
'I'able I1XV entitled ''Tools for Tillage of Soil'' shows the data for the most important division of farm machinery. They are the prime essentials to successful cotton-farming. 
TOOLS FOR TILLAGE OF SOIL 

Class 
White owners_______ Mexican owners_____ Negro owners______ _ 
All owners----------­
tenants______ Mexican tenants---­White 
tenants___ ___ All
Negro
tenants__________ 
All groups_______ 
Class 


owners_______
White 
owners_____ Negro OWilerB------­
Mexican 
All owners___________ 

tenants______ Mexican tenants____ White 
Negro tenants______ 
tenants__________
All All groups _______ 
Number 
persons
In group 
130 2 24 156 
110 44 88 
248 
404 
Number barrows 
117 
1 13 131 
84 10 16 110 
241 
Total No. tll­!age im­plements 
1,129 15 154 1,298 
734 157 
299 
1,190 
2,488 
Ridingculti­vntors 
268 
3 45 316 
22!2 38 84 
344 
660 
Number perfarm 
8.6 
7 .5 
6.4 
8.3 
6.3 
3.6 
3.4 
4.S 
6.1 
Walkingcul ti­
vators 
76 1 6 
83 
7 13 5 25 
108 
Value per farm 
$137.31 
~.50 
81 .67 
128.30 
$120.70 
41.60 
42.10 
68.10 
$98.20 
Ridingplanters 
182 2 
28 
212 
151 27 50 
228 
440 
Number ridingturningplows 
121 
l 
17 139 
69 7 24 
100 
239 
Walkingplanters 
32 0 1 
33 
10 7 2 19 
52 
Number walkingturningplows 
288 4 39 
--331 ­
156 51 94 301 
632 
Double shovel 
11 
0 
3 
14 
1 
fi 
3 4 
18 
Number listers 
20 
3 2 
25 
20 
3 11 34 
59 
Sweep
stock 
14 0 0 
14 
14 
1 
10 25 
!l9 
Here again attention is called to the fact that whites are best equipped, and owners for each class are better equipped than tenants. This fact will be found true in all the succeed­ing tables. 
In each group there is a large preponderance of walking turning plows; while, on the other hand, there are far more riding cultivators and planters than walking cultivators and planters. Furthermore, the old ''double shovel'' and ''Georgia stock" have practically disappeared_ Most probably the reason back of these facts is that a large majority of the farmers have only two dependable work horses_ Hence they are forced to cling to the old two-horse walking turning plow, but seize eagerly the more modern riding cultivator and planters which require only two horses. 
It is hard to understand why there are no more harrows in use. Apparently the farmers have not awakened to a realiza­
tion of the advantages afforded by such implements in con­serving moisture and pulverizing the seed-bed. 
Table LXVI presents data showing that the farmers are on the whole fairly well supplied with heavy farm wagons, so neces­sary to the marketing of the cotton crop and in fact to the general operation of the farm. It will appear that the negroes and Mexicans have supplied themselves with the minimum num­ber of farm wagons; but, on the other hand, a careful scrutiny of the schedules from which these data are taken will show that the white owners and white tenants have more generously equipped themselves in this particular. 
TABLE J..JXVI 
VEHICLES FOR J,OCOMOTION AND TRANSPORTATION 
Vehicles for Locomotion and Transportation
Total 
•rota!
No.
Clll,'ls 
No. 
No.
No. 
No. 
Value 
No.
per: 
per 
bug-
per 
wag­
sur-
No.
!Onsm 
VC· 
No. 
gles 
reys
group 
farm 
ons 
hacks 
autos
hicles 
farm 
--·
-· 
White owners________ ----­
15
224.00 
11 
48 
29
130 
38.9 
286
3 
owners___ ----___ 
72.50 
2 
0 
1 
0 
0
2 
3 
1.5
Mexican
owners________ __ ___ 
86.67 
1 
17 
2 
.0 
Negro 
24 
56 
.67 
36 
324 
12 
--66 
--17 
--29
448 
2.87 
200.93
All owners. --------------_ 156 
2.14 
120.86 
193 
4 
34 
9
116 
247 
7
White tenants___ --------­
tenants__________ 
·4 
0
31 
16 
1
1.2 
40.91
Mexican 
44 
52
tenants____________
Negro 
8 
27
88 
102 
1.16 
41.31 
66 
1 
0 
290
248 
401 
1.67 
73.85 
16 
--77 
--9 
--9
All tenants---------------­
-·­
2.1 
26
404 
849 
122.92 
614 
28 
143 
38
All groups_--------------­
There is certainly a meager supply of buggies, automobiles, etc. Even among the white owners there are less than enough to go around. Among the tenants the supply falls far short of this mark. 
Table I.XVII has to do with harvesting machinery. The equipment is very small. But it should be remembered that there is very little small grain planted by the farmers inter­viewed. They are primarily cotton farmers. Whether it is wise to adhere to the one-erop system, is a different matter; but ·the amount of harvesting machinery is sufficient to supply the need for it under .the present cropping system. White owners .are best supplied, due to the fact that they practice more 
diversification, and also to the fact that they can better afford the extra outlay of capital for such expensive machinery. Mexi­can owners· had no harvesting machinery whatever, and have been omitted from this table accordingly. 
TABLE LXVII 
HARVESTING MACHINERY 

Total 
No. 
No. har-
I ' 
No.
No. 
Value 
No.
persons 
vesting
Class 
hay 
hay 
l'o.
per 
per
ma-
No.
in 
binders
balers
group 
rakes
chines 
farm 
farm 
mowers 
White owners_____ 
2
130 
132 
1.0 
$32.60 
81 
34 
15 
Negro owners_____ 
0 
0
24 
13 
10.00 
10 
3
.5 
owners________
All 
2
154 
--15
145 
.9 
28.61 
91 
37 
White tenants____ 
116 
2
7!'­
.6 
23.50 
45 
2
23 
Mexican tenants_ 
44 
3 
0
.07 
1.25 
2 
1 
0 
Negro tenants____ 
88 
9 
.1 
3.00 
1 
0
1
7
tenants_____ .. _
All 
.33
248 
12.30
84 
54 
25 
3 
---2 
groups_______
All 
402 
229 
.55 
18.6'2 
62 
18 
4
145 
~ 
N"ote-Mexican owners had no harvesting machinery and have been omitted from this table. 
It will be seen that mowers and rakes are the chief tools used for harvesting. Cane or .sorghum is the chief hay crop planted, hence the need for more of such tools. There is a prevalent practice for white owners to allow their tenants to use their mO'l~ers, since at best on any given farm there will be but a few acres in hay-producing crops. One mower can very easily be used by several farms. It is also customary for farmers having hay balers to bale for their neighbors for hire. The supply of balers is, consequently, most probably adequate. 
All tools or farm machinery not embraced in the foregoing schedules have been brought together in an ''omnibus'' table headed "Miscellaneous." It was thought to be worth while to show in tabular form whether the farmers supplied themselves with anything more than indispensable necessaries. 
TABLE LXVIII 
MISCELLANEOUS* 
Total  
No.  No.  such  No.  Value  Cream  
Olas~  persons in group  imple­ments  per farm  per far111  Seeders  separa­tors  
White owners_____ ------------­Negro owners__________________  130 24  82 4  .6 .16  $37.15 5.42  14 1  26 0  
All ownNS---------------------­ 154  86  .54  3L80  15  26  

White tenants________________ _ 116 35 .33 $12 .24 7 16
Negro tenants_________________ 88 2 .02 L93 0 0 

All tenants--------------------­
~04 37 .14 6.41 7 16 
All groups________________ _ :l58 123 .3 $17.30 22 42 
Black-Class 
Gas Wind-smith's Stalk Manure engines mi11s tools cutters Tractor~ spreaders 
White owners _______ ___________ 
16 10 3 10 1 2
Negro owners_________________ _ 
1 0 0 2 0 0
All owners_____________________ _ 
17 10 3 12 1 2 
White tenants.._______________ _ 
8 0 3 1 0 0 Negro tenants-----------------­
2 0 0 0 0 0
All teniints_______________ ____ _ 
10 0 3 1 0 0 
~~---1----1--------­
All groups________________ _ 
27 10 6 13 1 2 
*Note-MP.xican owners and tenant.;; had no machinery or implements in this class!fica­tion, and have accordingly been omitted from this table. 
As might be guessed, whites-owners and tenants-are best supplied with such conveniences. Indeed, Mexican owners and tenants had absolutely none. Negroes were but little better off. 
This table reveals at a glance that farmers are using the ex­tensive and exploitative system of farming. The main idea is to get as much out of the land as possible with the least possible outlay of money or effort. Hence, the reason why there are but two manure spreaders. Farmers say the land is rich enough. There are also very few livestock and not much manure to spr.ead. 
CHAPTER XXII 
FARM BUILDINGS 
GEO. S. WF.HRWElN 
It would not be fair to compare the farm buildings of Travis County with those on northern farms. The mild climate makes it unnecessary to have the huge weather-tight barns with stone basements and elaborate ventilating devices found on the dairy farms of the North. A cotton farmer does not need much space to shelter his work animals or the few head of cattle that he has. However, these and the hogs and chickens need some shelter and there ought to be a place where concentrated feeds, cotton, corn, tools, and farm machinery can be stored. A num­ber of smaller buildings are usually required, smokehouse, pump­house, etc., depending upon the size of the farm and the nature of the work done. None of these need to be elaborate or of expensive materials, but they should at least be adequate, in good repair ~md painted. 
In the survey the investigators kept in mind these three points: size, condition and paint. In the following table their findings are enumerated. The dimensions of all the buildings on the farm (except the dwelling) were estimated and recorded. This included sheds, cribs, barns, smokehouse, chicken-coop­any building used for sheltering farm animals or used in farm practice. Being merely estimates, no claim is made for accu­racy of the figures, but they are sufficiently correct to furnish a basis for comparison. From the dimensions recorded by the investigators the figures of cubical contents were calculated. 
TA,BLE LXIX 
FARM BUJI,DINGS 
- 
Class  Number of cases ----­ Averagecubic con­tents of buildings  Good  Condition Fair I  Bad  Painted  
White owners_____ ----· White tenants_________ Negro owners~--------­Negro tenants_________ Mexicans -------------·  124 07 22 57 35  20, 720 cu. ft , 16,600 cu. ft. 7,290 cu. ft. 4, 310 cu. ft. 4,470 cu. ft.  52% 9.9 21 16 15  ~2% 22 46 30 30  26% 49 33 54 55  .,  14% 3 4 1.6 0  

The white owners' buildings afford them 20,720 cubic feet of storag,e space on the average. This is represented by a barn 30 ft. x 35 ft. x 12 ft. with an 8 ft. gable. Of course, few have barns of this size ; most of them had a smaller barn but the other buildings made up the .extra cubic feet. Several barns and sheds of good construction are shown in the photographs in the appendix. The striking thing about the table and diagram is the manner in which the storage space decreases for the other classes of farmers. The Mexican renter has only about one-fourth of the storage space that the white owner has. 
COMPARATIVE SIZES OF, FARM BUILDINGS. 
WttJTE OWNERS 
.l0,7ZS CV. FT. 
W"ilT~ Tt'NANTS 160 600 CU. prT. 

FIGURE XU 
It is to be observed, however, that many of the negro and Mexican renters are croppers (about 35 per cent) and have no tools or farm animals or else very few. There is no need of any shelter for them. Only those were averaged, however, where any shelter was found. In many places even the white r.enters had m~re sheds: ''Next thing to no barn, only a small shed room skewed to one side. Fences down and the yard as barren as Sahara,'' was reported of one white tenant's build-
9-S. 
Bulletin of the University of Texas 
ing. One negro renter said that the ramshackle mule shed on his place was his own for the landlord refused to build one. Of another place it was reported ''no barns to speak of; not a chicken, cow or garden on the place. '' 
Some of these cases are extreme, but observation bears out these figures. Buildings are inadequate even among owners as the unsheltered animals and farm machinery and exposed cotton testify. Negro owners are far below even the white ten­ants in this respect and in two cases reported no buildings at all. With the owners this is a matter that concerns them per­sonally ; lack of buildings is their own loss. In the case of ten­ants the loss due to lack of shelter falls on the tenant and he has just cause for complaint. This is one of the most perplex­ing points in the tenant ''problem,'' for landlords as a rule say there is very little use to put up good buildings, for the tenants do not keep them in repair and have been known to carry away doors and other movable parts when. they left. It is hard to see any solution for this problem except longer tenure and a better· understanding between landlord and tenant. 
As to condition, practically the same relation holds between the various classes. Only about half of the owners' barns were reported in good condition, and 14 per cent were painted. The percentage of good buildings on white tenant farms is just about half as large as on the farms of owners. The other classes are below these and the number with painted buildings is prac­tically negligible. 
Among the Swedish farmers, and to some extent among the Germans, the number of fine farm buildings, both houses and barns, was quite noticeable. Many had painted barns as well as houses with neat yards. Some who were in rather poorer dwell­ings explained that they were still paying on their farms and intended to build as soon as the farm was paid for. If these foreign-born farmers were omi.tted, the condition of the farm buildings in south Travis County would be bad indeed. 
About 60 per cent of the white owners r.eported that their buildings were insured against fire. Only 14 per cent of the negro owners were insured against fire, and no accurate informa­tion could be obtained from tenants on this subject. Few knew whether the buildings on their farms were insured by the land­lords or not. 
CHAPTER XXIII 
FARM LABOR 
LEONARD L. WATKINS 
The farm laborers of this area are almost entirely negroes 
and Mexicans. Figure XIII sliows that the 414 farmers hired a total of 3756 labor.ers, of which only 341 or about 9 per ceni were whites. Of the rest 1820 were n.egroes and 1595, Mexicans. This includes men, women, and children, from transient cotton pickers to hands employed by the year. Some of these may have worked for four or five different farmers during the yea:v and Qf course were reported by as many employers as they worked for. For this reason this 3756 does not represent the actual number of laborers in this ar~a. 
There are three types of laborers on these farms. ''Regular'' 
DISTRIBUTION OF 3756 LABORERS 
EMPLOYED BY 414 FARMERS 

1820 NEGROE.5 569 REGULARS 1.?51 PICKERS 
.}41 WHJTE5 
I'" REG. ZOO PICIC.ERS 
Dl5TRIBUTION A5 TO PACE AND WORK 


Dl5TRIBUTION AS TO EMPLOYERS, 
RACE, AND WORK 


FIGURE XIII 
Bulletin of the University of Texas 
laborers who are employed for several months or the year and receive monthly wages, "extra" laborers, those employed by the day or by the piece to plow, ''chop'' cotton, or ''grub'' land; and ''pickers'' hired to pick cotton and paid by the hun­dred pounds. In the diagram pickers are separated from the others who are all classed as "regular." It will be noticed that they make up about 65 per cent of the negro and Mexican la­borers. 
The Mexican Laborers. It seems that there is a Mexican wave sweeping slowly eastward and northward across Texas. About 40 per cent of all the farm labor in the area surveyed was per­formed by Mexicans and their number is increasing yearly. Many of them came directly from Mexico. The chaotic condition across the Rio Grande has forced increasing numbers to come into Texas. Usually they come to Austin and from here pass in.to the country to meet the demand for farm labor. They go from one farm to another to work and when the cotton season is over many come back to A u.stin where they help to crowd the congested sections of the town near the river and railroad tracks. It is interesting t-0 note that they seldom go far from the railroads and towns, the majority do not go over ten miles out. 
The transient Mexican laborer is not entirely confined to the cotton picking season. Most of the clearing of new land is performed by this type of labor and is done during the winter when there is little work to be had elsewhere. 
Mexican laborers usually go in gangs and there is a certain system of organization in each group. It is a kind of communal affair in which the leadership is entrusted to one Mexican. For instance, a certain Mexican c11Jled ''Old Joe,'' made this his business. He would go out among the Mexicans of some town or community and organize a group of Mexicans who were to work together on all jobs. If it were picking cotton, they would put up their tents and remain there until the job had been completed. In the meantime, "old Joe" dealt with the employer. He made the contract and all money wias paid to him. He then paid it out to the Mexicans. Furthermore, he did not usually work himself, but confined his attention to the general oversight of the work. He made arrangements at the store and ordered 
Social and Economic Survey of Southern Travis County 131 
the groceries. Mexicans prefer to live and work together. 'rhis is thus a kind of labor union in which collective bargaining is substituted for individual bargaining. It is obviously the only practical method to follow where thirty or forty workers are hired. 
But it is particulary advantageous from the standpoint of the farmer. He does not have to deal with the whole group in­dividually, many of whom cannot speak English. The authority is concentrated in one man, who can act for the group. More­over, he helps the farmer by keeping a general oversight over the work. Coming as they do in groups and many of them liv­ing in Austin, it is easier for the farmers to secure a large number of unskilled laborers at a time when they are needed. 
As a rule, Mexicans are light eaters. For this reason they can afford to work for lower wages and can pay higher rents than the other classes of farmers. Somewhat like the Chinese, they work for low wages because of a low standard of living. During the week the laborers usually have beans and some kind of plain bread but on Sunday the savings of the week will often be spent on a feast. Many times they live in mere tents put up near their work, easily moved when they obtain work on another farm. The average Mexican workers are also addicted to drink and observation goes to show that they are worse than the negro in this respect. Gambling is another marked characteristic. All these traits have their effect on the efficiency of the Mexican as a worker. <See the illustrations in the appendix.) 
As has been noted in the discussion on tenants, few of the 
Mexicans are renters and the numbers that have become perma­
nent farmers is almost negligible. 
Figure XIII shows the extent to which Mexican laborers have 
taken the place of the negro and white laborers. It is of no 
small consequence that almost one-half of our work is done by 
Mexicans. When we remember that in many respects the Mexi­
can is the least efficient of three classes of laborers in this area, 
the economic effect of the Mexican laborers will be manifest. 
Though it may be economical to employ the less efficient laborers 
on account of their cheapness and though it is true that they 
furnish a necessary element at present, the use of cheap un­
trained labor is not altogether a blessing. It introduces another race into the social life of the already racially divided community (see chapter on Social Life), it. retards more intensive farming and the use of important farm machinery among the white farmers. 
The Negro Laborer. The negro is characterized by lack of thrift, initiative, reliability, and ambition. This combined with his lack of ed.ucation serves to keep them in the rank of 1aborers and renters. 
The Mexican is preferred for the ''extra" work, while most farmers prefer the negro for regular farm work. They are better acquainted with farm life and make better general farm­ers. Eighty per cent of the laborers who were paid by the month were negroes. 
However, taking the negro laborers as a group, 68 per cent of the total were pickers.• Many of those live in Austin in the more or less congested districts. From them the city supply of domestic servants and casual laborers is drawn. During the school season of the year they 'find employment in Austin but in the dull season of the summer they drift out into the· country to do farm work. Then cotton chopping, plowing, and later cotton picking fdrnish a livelihood until the return of more prosperous times in Austin. Housewives have great diffiiulty in securing cooks and other servants in the fall, because most of the negro women remain out in the cotton patch until the picking season is over. Many of the farmers go into Austin and carry wagon loads of pickers back to the country. Here they generally live with the other negroes of the vicinity and not in tents as do the Mexicans. 
Seasonal Labor and Transient Laborers. The one-crop cotton farmers' work comes in several distinct rush reasons. One is in the spring after cotton is up and chopping and cultivation occupy his time. The other is in September and October when cotton is opening and has to be picked at once in order to h.arvest it in the best of condition. At these times additional laborers are very much in demand. Out of 3755 laborers whose 
*The percentage is too large on account of duplication in pick'0rs reported. 
Sociill and Economic Survey of Southern Travis County 133 
place of residence was ascertained only 4.6 per cent were regular workers living on the farm of the employer and only 43.5 per­cent came from the immediate neighborhood. Many of this type of laborers consisted of tenants and their families who worked on larger farms after their own work was done. Over 50 per cent or about 1900 of the laborers came in from outside sources­a fact of no small consequence. This condition holds true for the whole of Travis County and to a large extent for the whole State. 
It is also an interesting fact that Austin furnishes to the territory under consideration approximately one-fourth of the laborers (24.2 per cent), who come to work in the summer sea­son and go back to town after the cotton season closes. About 28 per cent of the laborers come from other places than the neighborhood or Austin. \Vith these are classed all those cases that were reported as ''transients'' as coming from ''everywhere'' or where the place of residence was not known by the farmer interviewed. It is an interesting fact that 70 per cent of these miscellaneous workers were hired by the white owners and ten­ants. This shows that these farmers go into the cities to get their laborers more so than the others. 
The seasonal demand for labor causes unemployment in the cities. During the farm season all the available labor of the city is drained away. Even then the demand for laborers in the field may not be completely filled. When the season is over they drift back to town where only a part can find work. All the rest suffer after the summer earnings are spent. A system of diversified farming that could employ its labor all the year round would help to relieve the situation. 
Child Labor on the Farm. An effort was made to get at the number of children of school age (under 14) employed as wage laborers at the cotton picking time. The figures obtained rep· resent only those who were paid for their work and not those who picked cotton on their fathers' farms. The number of chil­dren thus employed could not be ascertained with any degree of accuracy. Too many answers were, ''a few,'' ''some,'' ''nearly all'' or merely ''yes.'' Tiable LXX, however, shows, the number of farmers who reported the employment of children on their farms and the race of such children. 
TABLE LXX 
NUMBER OF FARMERS EMPLOYING CHILDREN OF SCIHOOL AGE TO PICK COTTON 
employers___________________
Number of Nu10ber employing children------------­Per cent employing children-----------­
Number employing Mexican children __ _ Number employing negro children______ Number employing white children______ 
White 
owners 
133 53 40% 
34 36 13 
White tenants 
122 54 44% 
22 
36 
15 
Negroes 
112 
36 
32% 
9 32 0 
Total
Mexicans 
414
47 
153
10 
21% 
37% 
75
10 
104
0 
28
0 
The table shows that over 40 per cent of white farmers hire children, and that a majority of these are negroes or Mexicans. 
In general the number of children hired is dependent upon the number of adult pickers, for this work is often done by families. The white owners and tenants hire most of the children, the negroes and Mexicans less, for they themselves are sometimes the pickers on the farms of other employers. But few farmers reported the employment of white children. It is also interesting to note that Mexicans hire mostly from their own :ooce and the negroes the same, both adults and children. About 37 per cent of all the farmers employed children as pickers. Some employ­ers had as many as 12 to 15 Mexican children on their places and 8 to 10 negro children were reported several times. Several reported the employment of 5 white children during the season. 
In not a few cases none but children or women and children were employed as pickers. 
Cotton is a crop that lends itself to the employment of women and children. But both cultivation and picking come during the school term and children are often kept out of school to work in the fields. ''King'' cotton demands this service most of all from those lowest in the economic scale, the negroes, Mex­icans and the poorer white tenants. It is .a noteworthy fact that the cotton counties of Texas, which are also the heavy tenant counties, have poorer schools, shorter terms, and less financial support than those counties where a more diversified agriculture is the rule.• 
*See Bulletin of University of Texas No. 364, "A Study of Rural Schools in Texas," p. 114; also No. 21:1915, "Studies in Farm Ten­ancy," p. 141. 
So<Jial and Economic Survey of Southern Travis County 135 
The mere figures as to the number of farmers employing chil­dren or even the number of children does not indicate evils of child labor. If the children were not kept out of school or employed for long hours, over-worked or made to work in weather conditions dangerous to the health of the child, there would be little complaint. On this point there is no statistfoal data, but observation and school records go to show that the evils men­tioned are not altogether absent in the area surveyed. 
Wages Paid. Table LXXI shows the average wages paid for various kinds of work by the different classes of farmers. The number of laborers employed by these groups of farmers varies a great deal so that aver.ages are somewhat misleading. The conclusion cannot well be drawn that white tenants pay $3 a month more for their white laborers and $5 a month more for their Mexican laborers than do the white owners. It is reason­able to suppose that if there is any variation within a race group it was due to variation in the natural .ability of the workers. 
TABLE LXXI 
WAGES PAID 
Monthly Daily Cotton 
Class of 
To To 
Employers 

To To Mex!-To To Mex!­White Negro can White Negro can Per acre. 
Per 100 lbs. labor-labor-labor-labor-labor-labor­
picking ers· ers ers ers ers ers 
cboppinl!' 
$.62 White tenant_____ 
White owner_____ 
$23.25 $22.95 $20.33 $1.07 $.96 $.88 
$.60 
26.50 l!:!.75 25.00 1.04 .92 .93 
.65 Negro owner_____ 
.60 
.62 .51 
.56
--------25.00 ----------------.91 .85 
.61
~~~gante~-~~:::::: 
:::::::: :::::::: ::====:: :::::::: -----~~ -----~94 
.57 
.61 Average --------­
.61
.56
24.871 23.92 22.26 1.05 .96 .90 
A comparison of the wages paid to different races of workers is more to the point. The economic superiority of the white race over the negro and Mexican is illustrated by the table. The average daily wage of the Mexican is 90 cents, of the negro 92 cents, and the white $1.05, and their standard of living and efficiency is in inverse proportion to the wage scale. The com­mon testimony of the farmers is that the Mexicans do the least work. This is in accord with the results obtained on public works and is reflected in the wage scale as shown by the table. 
There are but few instances of monthly wages except among the white owners and tenants. Most farmers pay by the day even in the case of regular laborers, many of whom live in houses furnished by the farmers. In some cases monthly wages include board, laundry, and lodging. Under other agreements the land­lord furnishes a garden plot or maybe milk or vegetables. The same relation holds true in the monthly as in the daily wages. The whites average $24.87 a month, negroes $23.92, and Mexi­cans $22.66. 
In cotton picking and chopping piece wages are the rule. The average price per 100 pounds for all classes was sixty-one cents. The average for chopping was fifty-six cents per acre. These are averages for all persons. The several prices show variations from forty cents in the earliest part of the season to $1.00 in the last. The modal, or most common wage was about 65 cents per 100 pounds. Taken by classes, the negro tenants and Mexi­can tenants pay least-61 cents per 100 pounds. 
The highest wage was 65 cents . per 100 pounds paid by the white tenants. This may be accounted for by the fact that usually the white owner has tenants on his land whom he .can employ, while the tenant is forced to seek help outs~de. The owners employ 46 per cent of the.fr labor from the neighborhood, while the tenants employ only 36.8 per cent from the neighbor­hood. A higher price must naturally be paid to attract outsiders. Tenants also do more of their own work and would hire help only in case of special stress, as in the last of the season. This would necessitate a higher average wage. On the other hand, owners hire practically all of their cotton picked, and the price paid would be more uniform. This is further shown by the relative amounts expended for pickers by tenants and owners. While there are only ten more owners than white tenants, they expend almost three times as much for picking. This is only in part due to the larger acreage of the owners. It is partly due to the fact that they hire all of their picking done, and would thus have a greater amount picked in the early season when the price-per 100 lbs. is lowest. It may also be an evi­dence of better business methods among the owners. 
The average rates per acre for cotton chopping show the same 
Social and Economic Sitrvey of Southern Travis County 137 
general results. The lowest rates are paid by the negro tenants, owners, and Mexican tenants respectively. In this case the price paid by white tenants and white owners :is the same, 60 cents. That the negroes and Mexicans have a small acreage, and depend largely on relatives for their chopping will explain their lower rates. 
Expenditure for Labor. Figure XIII (p. 129) shows the dis­tribution of laborers i:is to the employe:rs. It shows that the white farmer is · by far the largest employer of labor. Table LXII lilhows that the average number of laborers employed is over 12 per white owner and over 9 by white tenants. Mexicans re­ported the employment of 6 per farmer and negro tenants over 6. The negro owner employed the least of all per employer, only 5. 
TABLE LXXII 
TRANSIENT AND REGULAR LABORERS EMPLOYED AND EXPENDITURES FOR LABOR OF 414 FARMERS 


NegroWhite 
White 
Negro 
owners 
tenants 
owners tenants Mexicans Totals 
133 
122 
28 84 
4'7 
4'14'
Number of employers••------­
laborers__________ 
1411,616 
1,174-­
540 285 
3,756
of
Laborers per employer ________ 
5.1 
12.1 
9.6 
6 
8.11
6.• 


$3,124 
$ 861$20,777 $1,389 $1,100 
$26,751 Expenditure for extra labor
Expenditure for regula:: labor 
5,002 348 
893 
15,2908,498 549 
Expenditure for pickers_______ 
1,17415,709 6,075 5,739 1,547 
3C>,244 expenditure-----------­
14,201 
1,883 8,0'2144,98i 3,196 
'12,28!! Avera~e expendltcre per em­ployer••••----------------­
116 67 91338 174'.60
68 
Number 
Total 
The total expenditure for labor on the 414 farms covered in this area was $72,285. 'l'able LXXII shows that approximately 62 per cent of the total expenditure was made by white owners. The white tenants come next with 19.5 per cent of the total. There are only ten more white owners than tenants; this shows about three times as high an expenditure for owners as for tenants, $338 for the owner and $116 for the renters. The lowest expenditure was that of the negro owners, and next to that the Mexican tenants, $67 for the former, $68 for the latter. 
Of all the money spent for pickers the white owners spent over one-half and the white tenants one-fifth. The total expenditure for pickers was almost one-half of the whole labor expenditure. 
Of the $15,890 spent for ''extra'' labor the negro laborers received 52 per cent, the Mexicans 41 per cent, and the whites 7 per cent, fully one-half of it was paid by the white owner em­ployees. Of the almost $27,000 spent for "regular" labor the white owners paid almost $21,000, or 78 per cent, showing the extent to which this class of employers is dependent on hired help for regular work. 
The "Labor Problem" on the Farrn. On the farm as in the factory the following conditions may be found to which attention has been called in the course of this chapter: 
(1) 
There is an "immigration question," not of cheap Euro­pean or Asiatic labor but of Mexican and negro labor. The Mexican competes with the negro, who is already here, and both compete with the white man. Having lower standards of living, they force reduced standards upon their competitors, reduce wages, delay the introduction of labor saving machinery, and create racial and political difficulties. 

(2) 
Cities offer greater opportunities and better wages in trades where there is less competition with the unskilled negroes and Mexicans and the rural white laborer drifts to the cities. 

(3) 
Cheap labor produces cheap work. A great deal of the work done by the negro and Mexicans is rough unskilled work which in other places is done by machinery. 

(
4) The seasoned character of the "one crop" system of farin.ing produces unemployment during slack seasons, the brunt of which falls on the cities. 

(5) 
Cotton farming permits the use of women and children as laborers and economic necessity often forces them to work under conditions injurious to their health. Childr.en are often kept out of school to work in the fields both at chopping and picking times. 

(6) 
Hours are long. The usual reply of the bi.rmers was "from sun-up to sun-down." This is especially true of the rush seasons and although such timf}s are partly offset by seasons when work is slack or cotton is "laid by," long hours are never­theless one of the bad features of farm life. Combined with the drudgery of many farm operations, they create a dislike for farm life that drives many a boy to the city. 


The remedy for 4, 5, and 6 is to be sought in a diversified and not a one-crop system of agriculture. On a diversified farm with live stock and less cotton, labor i!'l spread more evenly over the full year, thereby easing up the rush seasons and relieving the strain on the laborers, especially on the women and children. Diversification allows the use of more farm machinery and de­creases the drudgery of farm life. Hours can be more or less standardized and all in all farm life made more enjoyable and profitable. 
Bulletin of the University of Texas 
CHAPTER XXIV 
RURAL CREDITS 
E. D. PENN 
'rhe purpose of this chapter is to give the facts concerning rural credit conditions in the southeastern portion of Travis County as they were found by the workers on the Survey. The farmers' own answers to the questions, "Do you borrow 7 If so, how much 1 Where1 Wby 1 At what interest rates, and giving what security 7" will be considered. Then, with the as­sistance of certain facts gained from consultation with men fa­miliar with the conditions, and of facts revealed by fellow­workers, an answer will be given to the question whether we have in our country a problem in usury, which demands, and should have immediate attention. 
Table LXXIII shows the number of each class of farmers that borrowed money during 1915. It shows that the white owner is fairly independent of need for credit, while the negroes and Mexicans are very dependent. 
TABLE LXXIII 
NUMBER OF FARMERS BORROWING MONEY AND AMOUNTS BORROWED 
Class  Number reporting  Per cent borrowing  Amount borrowed  Per cent of total sum  
White owners---------------Whlte tenants _____________ Necro owner&--------------­Negro tenants______________ _ Mexican tenants___________ _ Mexican owners-----------­ 53 .3 61.7 66.7 84.3 83.3 100  $36,235.00 20,523 .00 5,775.00 11,270.00 10,854.67 350.00  42.5 24 .1 6.7 13.4 12.8 0.4  
Total ------------------­ 366  $85'007 .67 --------------­ 

Table LXXIV shows the size of the loans made by the various classes of farmers after a deduction of $16,900 was made from the amounts borrowed. This deduction was for very large loans made for the purchase of land and stock. 
TABLE LXXIV 
AMOUNTS BORROWED AND AVERAGE LOANS FOR ORDINARY FARM EXPENSES 
Amount  Per cent  
Class  Number  borrowed  of total  Average loan  
White owners __------------­White tenants_______________  48 51  $!2.,585.00 18,423.00  33.2. 27.0  $470.52 361.!U  
Negro owners--------------­Negro tenants________ _______ Mexican tenants____________ Mexican owners_____________  13 62 33 1  4,775.00 11,270.00 10,854.00 200.00  7.0 16.5 15. ~ 0.4  367.30 181.77 328.91 200.00  
Total  ---------­________..  208  $68,107.00  100.00  $327.44  

By comparison with the first table given it will be seen that the size of the loan varies almost inversely with the dependence of the farmer. The white owner is least dependent, and his loan jg the largest. The negro tenant is most dependent and his Joan is the smallest in size. This theorem will be found to hold good right down the line, from white owner to negro tenant. The seeming exception in the order in the cases of the negro owner and the Mexican owner may be accounted for by the fewness of the cases and the scarcity of data. 
The source of credit for the various classes of farmers is in­teresting. It may be assumed that the fairly independent man who borrows in fairly large amounts will borrow from a bank but the less independent farmers must depend upon other sources. Table LXXV shows the per cent of the total loans of the various classes of farmers borrowed at the various places. If the numbers borrowing were tabulated instead of amounts borrowed, the figures would be still more startling. 
Bulle.tin of the University of Texas 
TABLE LXXV 
SOURCE OF FARM LOANS-PER CENT OF TOTAL LOANS OF EACH CLASS 
BORROWED FROM VARIOUS SOURCES 

From landlordBorrowed by 
----% 
White owners-------·-------· 
White teoants____________. 
19.1
Negro tenants______________ _ 29.3
Mexican tenants___________ _ 
30.4
Negro owners______________ _ Mexican owners____________ 
From bank 
84 .6% 
53.9 
18.7 
9.9 
63.7 
100.0 
From store 
2.7% 
15.8 
49.6 
53.8 1().4 
From relatives or friends 
12.7% 
11.2 
1.9 
5.9 
25.9 
The same dependmt classes, th& l\fexican and negro tenants, get their money almost exclusively from the landlord or the store. The large per cent of white tenants getting their money at these places is very discouraging. 
The purpose of the borrowing was, as a rule, the making of the crop and a great deal was borrowed to buy groceries and clothing for the families. Of the total amount borrowed 80 per cent was to make the crop or to consume, which amounts to about the same thing. There was one small loan for the pur­pose of buying insurance, and one to pay a doctor's bill. The remainder, about :W per cent, was used in the purchase of land and of stock. Every cent of the money borrowed by the Mexi­can and negro tenants was for consumption and for making the crop. The white owner borrowed 62.4 per •cent to make crop; 13.4 p.er cent to purchase stock, and 24.2 per cent to buy land. The white tenant used 10.2 per cent of what he borrowed to purchase stock, 0.5 per cent to pay doctor's bill, and the re­mainder to make his crop. The negro owner borrowed 20.9 per cent to buy land, and the remainder to keep his farm going. 
The loans were secured, in general, by mortgag.es on land, on machinery, stock, or crop, by personal security, and, in the case of the white owner, by mere promise. The number of owners who borrowed and gave no mortgage on land was rather sur­prising, only 4.9 per cent of the loans being secured by the white owner in that manner, and only 8.3 per cent by the negro owner. The homestead law, however, may explain this fact. 
Socwl and Economic Survey of Southern Travis County 143 
The white owner generally gave only his promise as security. The other classes have nearly always mortgages on the crops, the mules, and machinery, and usually the landlord went on the note for them. The security of the loans, in the case of the dependent classes, amounted to everything that they had, making it practically impossible for them to get away without paying up their debts. 
It is intere<>ting to compare the treatment which the more or less dependent farmers receive at the hands of the lender with that which the more independent, more intelligent, and more prosperous receive at the hands of those from whom they bor­row. The following table shows in detail the amounts borrowed by the various classes at the widely varying interest rates. 
TABLE LXXVI 
AMOUNTS BORROWED AT VARIOUS RA'fES OF INTEREST BY THE 
VARfOUS CLASSES OF FARMERS 
White White Negro Negro Mexican IMexican owners tenants owners tenants tenants owners Totals 
~ ~~~ :~i========== $ 4,~:~!---~~~~ ========== $---250~00 ========== ========== $ 4,~~:gg
8 per cent_________ 29,480.00 12,244.00 $ 2,800.00 2,835.00 $ 3,583.67 ----------50,942.67 9 per cent__________ ----------------------------------------'300.00 ----------300.00 
10 per cent__________ 1,270.00 6,100.00 2,670.00 4,915.00 4,865.00 $ 350.00 20,170.00 12 per cent_________ ----------165.00 160.00 215.00 --------------------540.00 
~§~rmj~~:j~~=j~~~~ :::::;:;=f:~m~=~ ----~-i;==~~i~~ ~~~~~~~~ "~.I 

Uncertain ----------700.00 665.00 145.00 2,093.00 1,190.00 ----------4,793.00 No. int. -------------185.00 297.00 ----~-----412.50 322.00 ----------1,216.50 
Total borrowed____ 36,235.00 20,523.00 5,775.00 11,270.00 10,854.67 350.00 85,007.67 Total at definiterate 35,335.00 19,858.00 5,630.00 8,764.50 9,342.67 350.00 79,280.17 
Per cent of loans 
borrowed at 8 per cent or less_______ 96.4 65.4 49.7 35.2 38.4 0 71.0 At more than 8 per cent --------------3.6 34.6 50.3 64.8 61.6 100 :!9.0 
The above table shows that the white owner borrows at a much lower rate of interest than any of the other farmers. On some Joans the interest rate was not reported and the amounts on which farmers reported no interest are questionable. It is prob­able that those who thought they paid no interest (espeeially if noti borrowed at banks), indirectly gave ample compem;ation. 
10-S. 
The last items in the table show that the independent owners get over 96 per cent of their monev at 8 per cent or less while the dependent and ignorant borrowers have to pay more than 8 per cent on 35 to 100 per crnt of their loans. By their own figures, these folks pay over 2 per rent more for their money than the owners and are really in the f5"reatest need for more libral credit. 
So far the facts a<i they were taken off the survey schedules -as they were given by the farmers themselves-have been con­sidered. Concerning the amounts borrowed and the places of borrowing, we must accept the figures of the borrower, inac­curate though they must be; but concerning tne interest rates we have other sources of information. These rather discourag­ing figures showing how much higher the interest rate is for the d,ependent and the ignorant are to be interpreted by means of information secured through consultation with men who know· how things are done, one of them being a man who once kept a store a little distance from the Survey area. 
''You may be very certain, i' runs the conc.ensus of opinion among these men, "that no farmer, tenant or owner, gets credit at the store for less than 20 per cent, and that the landlord
1
treats his dependents no better. The borrower may consider himself fortunate if he gets it that cheap." 
The process, it seems, by which such ruinous rates are charged 
without the borrower perceiving, is very simple. The landlord 
agrees to let the tenant have what money he needs at 8 or 10 
per cent. The tenant then draws it at the rate of $20 or $30 a 
month for ten months. At the end of that time he returns the 
principal and 8 or 10 or 12 per cent on it, as if he had had it 
the whole year. The procedure of the storekeeper is by no means 
more complicated. He adds from 10 to 25 per cent to the cash 
price, and then adds about 1 per cent a month to the bill. 
To account for this enormous rate which is charged the poorer 
white tenant, the negro tenant, and the Mexican tenant is fairly 
easy; to justify it, however, seems out of the question. The ig­
norance of thesP tenants has already been hinted at. The 
strange delusion that some of them had that they were getting 
money from the landlord or store \Yithont interest may also be 
quoted as indicative of the tenant's superb indifference and ignorance of his financial status. Many who had borrowed from these two sources did not know how much they owed and had no way of finding out except by asking their creditors. One instance of an old man is in point. His boys went to the landlord and drew the money as it was needed. In spite of the fact that the old man had requested the landlbrd not to let them have money unless they haq a book to set it down in, no account of the money drawn was kept ex­cept by the landlord. The interest rate, the old man thought, was 10 per cent, but may be it was 12. All he knew was that after cotton picking time .each year the landlord came around to settle up. 'I1he old fellow had been there about twenty years, and he never made much. 
The high interest rate may, then, be partly accounted for by the dependence of the little borrower, or by his indifference and ignorance of the rate that he pays, and by the lender's willing­ness to take advantage of these conditions. The lender seeks to justify by saying that the poor tenant is inefficient, dis­honest, and, on the whole, a poor risk. As to the charge that the poor tenant is inefficient, it is shown in another chapter that the average product of the white tenant is .39 bale of cotton t<> the acre, and that for negro and Mexican tenants was . . 38 bale. The average for the white owner was only .40 bale to the acre. The tenants who pay this enormous inter.est rate are but little less efficient than the white owner, and if inefficiency is to be pleaded as a cause of high rates, the landlord should pay them, as well as the poor tenant. 
That the tenant is always dishonest, is not to be believed. But 
if he were, the enormous difference in interest rates could not be· 
entirely justified by that fact. The fact is a notorious one that 
the county storekeepe·r gets rich, and he has done so time and 
again in this portion of Travis County. The landlords, as a rule, 
also move to town and live in luxury. These high interest rates 
evidently pay well. 
It is true, however, that the tenant is a poorer risk, as he can 
not give the same security as can the land owner; it is doubtful 
if the differenc.e in risk however, is so great as the: difference 
in the interei;.t rates. As one of the men with whom this ques­tion was discussed put it, ''These men have the tenant where they want him, and they do certainly seize their advantage and profit by it to the very limit. They get the tenant in ·debt to them, and some of them see that he never gets out. The tenant simply can not pay this enormous rate out of what the capital earns, for it does not earn anything like that much. It is bound to come out of his wages, and even then he can not pay it. What the average Mexican, negro, or poor white tenant amounts to is simply a peon." 
(This is one of the most difficult points in the whole industrial situation in Texas. The shifting character of the tenant population makes it impossible to gain sufficient acquaintance with them as indi­viduals to enable the establishment of a sound credit basis. More­over, a suffidently large proportion of the tenants are so little pos­sessed of a sense of responsibility that it is dangerous for a creditor to trust any unknown tenant. It is sometimes difficult to collect rent, to say nothing of loans. In short, it is impossible to say how high a rate of interest should be charged. The truth is that such persons have no business to borrow at all. The great evil in the situ­ation is that men who are not fitted to be running farms, and who as a matter of fact are a sort of laborer, are made to go through the motions of running farms. It would be much bettoc if the untrust­worthy and incompetent "tenants" were encouraged to become farm laborers and paid cash wages at relatively short intervals to cover their living expenses. This would go a long way toward solving not only the usury problem, but also the tenant problem.-The Editor.) 
To concludt>: \Ve have found that the white owner and the more intelligent white tenant':l borrow from the bank at the rea­sonable rate of 8 per cent, but that the less intelligent whites, the Mexicans, and the negroes are often reduced to a position little better than that of a peon, through the means of a usurious interest rate. The intelligent and efficient owners who can and do utilize capital in such a manner as to make it very pro­ductive will not pay more than 8 per cent, because they have found that they can not do it. If capital skillfully managed only produces 8 per cent, where can the 20 to 30 per cent, which the ignorant and unskilled tenant often has to pay, come from but out of his labor, and what is the condition of a class of men who labor, but who must turn the product of their labor over to some other man? 
The rural credit conditions of Travis are as discouraging as they might well be. There is a usury problem. 
CHAPTER XXV 
FARMERS' ORGANIZATIONS 
GEO. S. WEHRWEIR 
There are no large farmers' organizations in the territory surv.eyed, no farmers' gins, warehouses, stores, or other more or less co-operative enterprises involving an outlay of capital. There are, however, some very interesting organizations of a less pretentious natur.e. 
There are three ice clubs, the largest at Elroy, the others at Carl and Mooresville. 'rhe Carl Ice Club is composed of .eight members and existed for about five months during the summer of 1915. The purpose of the club is the co-operative purchase of ice for the club. •rwice a week a member went to Austin to bring out a load of 800 pounds of ice to Carl. Here the members came, cut up the ice and took home their shares, except some of those who lived right on the road between Carl and Austin. These took their shares from the wagon as it passed the house. The members took turns in going to Austin according to a schedule previously arranged. Buying their ice in large quanti-. ties as they did they got it at 221;2 cents per hundred, where the price to Austin residents is 40 cents a hundred, delivered. The other two clubs had the same method of getting their ice and distributing it. 
The Elroy Seed Club was organized about three years ago, but did not do active business in 1915 because cot­ton seed was extraordinarily high in price. The year before they pooled their seed and by telegraphing to various places asking for bids on large lots they were able to get two or three dollars above what was usually paid for cotton seed. One mem­ber said he received $17 when the usual price was $14 or $15. Another one said he got $5 more a ton by selling through the club. The club also buys cotton seed for planting purposes. This club has its headquarters at Elroy in a clubhouse built by the Swedes of this community. The membership is largely of this nationality; the same is true of the Elroy Ice Club. 
Bulletin of the University of Texas 
One member said, "It was very satisfactory at first, but it is not so good now; farmers do not take the interest they ought to.'' Perhaps this is only a temporary condition and due to the fact that in 1915 conditions were such that pooling the seed was not necessary. 
There is also a buying club at St. Elmo which buys goods in large quantities and distributes to the members. At Moor€sville there is a Meat Club which is organized to supply the members with fresh meat. The usual method in these clubs is to have the members furnish a calf in turn, one being killed each week, the meat divided up among them, and r€cord kept of the amounts taken by each. 
Several of the Swedish farmers mentioned Swedish Fire In­surance companies whose headquarters, however, are not in Travis County. The German farmers mentioned a German Fire Insurance Company, a.lso located in an adjoining county. One man said he was a member of the Texas Dairy Association, an­other the Farmers' Union. A corn club and a poultry club were also mentioned. 
The negroes mentioned ''The Farmers' Improvement Society,'' which is really an insurance company. According to the state­ment of a negro tenant, it has its headquarters at Manchaca and has about fifty members. The dues are 10 cents a month or $1.05 a year, ''depending on the benefit. In case of death there is a benefit of $100, burial $50, and in sickness two or three dollars a week. ' ' 
A number of farmers' organizations have been started during the last ten years and failed. Eight farmers mentioned the Farmers' Union as one of thoS€ that failed. One man said that the Union failed because it "wouldn't help farmers who were in debt.'' Two men mentioned the Grange and one the Allianc.e. Several mentioned a Farmers' "Verein" which was organized for co-operative buying. One of the farmers said about this society, ''I got stung once; the club soon broke up.'' Two farm­ers mentioned a society for the selling and buying of seeds, two a defunct dairy association and one a truck growers' associa­tion, all of which had been failures. 
The reasons for these failures were varied. In the case of 
Social and Economic Survey of Southern Travis County 149 
the truck growers' association, the reason seems to have been that ''farmers cannot live up to government.'' ''Can't agree on policy,'' ''no initiative,'' ''retailers fought it,'' ''lack of inter­est,'' were given as other reasons, but, most of all, ''farmers won't stick together. ~' To these must be added the rather un­stable farming population; 
Some eighteen owners mentioned the various active organiza­tion described, whereas only six tenants mentioned them or knew about them. The successful farmers organization must be com­posed of people who are more or le.ss permanent residents and who therefore know each other and learn to work toegther. 




APPENDIX 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

A COMMUNITY CENTER 
A store and blacksmith shop, with the owner's residence. Such coun­try stores are important factors in financing tenant farmers. This picture and the one below show the low undulating hills charac­teristic of the Houston clay area. 
A WATER HOLE FOR STOCK 
An artificial pond is often the only source of water for stock in the black "waxy" soil ar-ea. This is a drawback in livestock production. 
GETTING WATER FROM ONION CREEK 
Cisterns are used to catch rain water for domestic purposes. When these are empty, water is hauled from the streams. 
STREAM BED IN THE DRY SEASON 
Note the bridge high above the stream bed to take care of the floods during the rainy seasons. 
SOIL EROSION 
A gully over six feet deep washed into a hillside near Carl. The black soil washes easily during the heavy showers. 
STONE EMBANKMENT TO STOP SOIL WASHING 
This wall prevented the soil from being washed into the stream. The ground has filled up from two to three feet on the inner side of the embankment. Some farmers in this section have begun to terrace their farms. 
A NEGRO FARM OWNER'S H O:vrE 
This man owns this farm and some other property. Most of the negroes are tenants and laborers, however. 
A MEXICAN TENANT FAMILY 
Mexican tenants are crowding out white and negro renters in many cases. 
MEXICAN LABORERS' TENT 
Most of the Mexicans work in groups, living in tents, which they move to the next farm offering work. 
A MEXICAN CAMP-'GRUBBING" LAND 
Mexicans are often employed to clear land and do other rough labor 
requiring a large labor force. 
MOVING 
Over 4 0 per cent of the tenants in this area had been on their farms a year or less. Often their entire equipment is no more than the picture shows. 
AJIIUSEMENT HALL NEAR ONION CREEK 
This building and the surrounding grove are used for social gatherings, picnics, and dancing. 
READY TO START A SCHOOL BASKETBALL GAME 
Schools furnish a large part of the entertainments of the rural communities. 
A LODGE HALL IN CREEDMOOR 
Lodges are important factors in the social life of the country. 
TYPICAL CHURCHES 
The upper picture is an abandoned white church near Carl; the mid­dle, a Mexican church near Garfield; and the lower, a negro church and school on Onion Creek. Several abandoned churches werE found in the area. 
TYPICAL FARM BUILDJNGS 
The first picture shows a common scene on many farms-the cane stacks, fence for the mules and a small shed to house them­nothing else. The second is a negro tenant's barn. The two last pictures show good types, built to suit the climate and farm con­ditions. The last picture shows the fine barns of a Swedish farmer" neat, painted, and in good repair. 
UNSHELTERED COTTON 
This scene is typical on the majority of farms. In 1914 only 3 2 per cent of the farmers held cotton after December 1, and of these about half sheltered their cotton in barns or warehouses. 
"SCRAPPING" COTTON 
Notice that the stalks are so short that pickers have to kneel while at work. This and dragging the heavy sack make picking hard work for women and children. 
A TYPICAL COTTON GIN 
Note the exposed cotton in the gin-yard. The picture was taken in spring.