152 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



2. The relative proportion of corn and other supply crops to cotton is 

 increaslDjj in all the States. The estimated proportions are 41 -pcv cent, 

 for corn, oi for cotton, and 25 for all other cultivated crops. 



3. On nearly half the cotton area of the Atlantic States fertilizers are 

 regularly applied j in the remaining States east of the Mississippi a 

 greater economy of cotton-seed and lot-manures is practiced and a few 

 experiments made "^ith commercial fertilizers, but the crop is grown 

 mainly without any attempt at fertilization ; and beyond the Mississippi, 

 with occasional exceptions, no manures are used. There is a strong 

 tendency to the use of commercial fertilizers, mainly in connection with 

 composts of home material, such as cotton-seed, animal-manure, marl, 

 forest-refuse, &c. 



4. There is gradual improvement in culture, rather in thoroughness 

 than in change of mode, a deeper preparation, with a lighter and more 

 frequent after-culture. This improvement is not general, and is no- 

 where sufficiently developed. Improvement in implements is more 

 marked, but by no means universal ; and it is most observable in dis- 

 tricts in which white labor is in largest proportion. 



5. The size of farms is diminishing. Between 18G0 and 1870 the num- 

 ber of farms of 100 acres and upward decreased in every cotton State 

 and those of less than 100 increased, the reduction in one case being 22 

 per cent, and the increase in the other 35 per cent. This movement is 

 still progressing, the largest ratios of increase of small farms being in 

 South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida. 



6. The rates of wages paid for labor is higher in Texas than in 18G7, 

 about the same as at that date in the Carolinas, and lower in the other 

 States. The reduction is less in Alabama and the Mississippi Valley 

 than in Georgia. It ranges from $101 in South Carolina to $145 in 

 Arkansas for a "full hand" per annum, with rations. The share system 

 still predominates over wages. Contracts vary widely in details, but 

 are most generally based upon the following equivalents : Bare labor, 

 one-fourth of cotton in rich land, one-third in poor soils; labor and 

 rations, one-half as a general rule, four-tenths in some very productive 

 lands ; labor, rations, stock, and supplies, two-thirds to three-fourths ot 

 the product. 



The proportion of white labor is increasing, producing now in some 

 cases one-tliird to four-tenths of the crop. It predominates in Texas 

 and in Arkansas. 



7. One in twenty of the freedmen are cultivating lands of their own. 

 The largest proportion is found in Florida — one in twelve. 



8. The average cost of the crop of 187G is made 9^ cents per pound, 

 and the price received 9 -^^ cents. The net prolit is about $11,500,000, 

 not quite per cent, of the gross receipts, which amount in round num- 

 bers to $205,000,000. The average profit is about $2.00 per bale. 

 Texas has the largest margin of profit, 11 mills per pound ; Arkansas, 

 9 ; Alabama, owing to a poor crop, the least, 2 mills ; in most of the 

 other States, 5 mills. 



9. The varieties of seed having the widest popularity are the Dickson, 

 Peeler, Cheatham, Boyd's Prolific, Simpson, and Petit Gulf. 



10. Testimony is almost universal to the superior economy of pro- 

 ducing home supplies, a wider range of production, with cotton as a 

 surplus product. 



