ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that far front being a narrowly economic, juridical, or individual matter, land ownership entails a set of social and interpersonal relations and examines major landownership issues raised during the "structure of agriculture" debate. Gene Wunderlich and Russel W. Bierman state that ownership is a "rather loose aggregation of human relationships that provides maximum, though limited, use and possession of property objects." The 1978 Survey results are used as a basis of comparison with the 1946 United States Department of Agriculture Farmland Ownership Study. In contrast, in the 1978 Land Ownership Survey, farmland was simply identified as such by the landowner responding. Most informed observers realize that the ownership of land, including farmland, in the United States is highly concentrated. The redistribution of landownership over the study period, then, has given small land-owners an increased equity in the South; but this has meant more White, middle class owners while blacks have almost entirely lost contact with the land.
