Land is no good unless it is worked. To work it, manpower, draught animals, tools and seed are all necessary. For want of one or more of these owners are sometimes forced to leave land uncultivated. If the land is sufficiently valuable it is often hired out to a neighbour on a share-cropping basis. The terms are fairly standard, though details may vary. The owner pays all taxes, is expected to help with the harvest, and takes half the crop , and half the straw. The share-cropper supplies animals, equipment and labour in return for the remaining half. Seed is usually provided by the owner, but whoever provides it is entitled to deduct an equivalent amount from the winnowed grain before the division. Share-cropping is arranged ad hoc and partnerships vary greatly from season to season. It is not a system of permanent landlord-tenant relations. There is no definite date for fixing contracts and neither side has any right to continue the arrangement beyond one season. It may of course be renewed annually, and may in some cases continue for years, but fluctuations in man- and ox-power in one household or the other, dissatisfaction with each other's conduct, or some change in the social situation is always liable to upset it.
Whereas land in Sakaltutan was short, in Elbashï it was plentiful. Share-croppers were easy to find in Sakaltutan, and many people were keen to take on more land if they could get it. In Elbashï on the other hand, most agricultural households had land, and the total amount of available land in proportion to labour and oxen was greater. In consequence share-croppers were difficult to find, and they would not take on the poorest land at all since the half of a poor yield did not repay the labour and expense involved.
Those who put their land out to share-croppers are not necessarily the well-to-do. They include the aged, the sick the widows, or those who have lost or been forced to sell their oxen or are short of seed. In many such cases a kinsman works the land, and may claim that he is doing so as a duty rather than for his own benefit. Others let out their land to free themselves. for some other occupation.
Correspondingly, those who take on share-cropping are not the poorest village households. To share-crop a man needs