THE PRESENT COTTON SYSTEM 199 



FIELD LABOR OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN 



Another factor so far inherent in cotton culture is 

 the large amount of labor required. Not only is a large 

 amount required but it is cheap labor. Cotton is a cheap 

 labor crop, as has been suggested, largely because it can- 

 not be grown by machinery. Machinery does the work of 

 many men and pays their labor returns to its owner. 

 Machine agriculture enables the farmer to cultivate more 

 acres and thus add to his increased labor returns, in- 

 creased returns on capital. The amount of cotton a 

 farmer can grow is limited by the amount he can pick. 

 Cotton has so far defied machine harvesting. This de- 

 fiance limits the development to any great extent of 

 mechanized methods of planting and cultivating. It is 

 useless to plant more cotton than can be picked. 



The greater amount of labor required on cotton farms 

 has been shown by comparative farm management 

 studies. 44 A group of cotton farms in Sumter County, 

 Georgia, averaging 73 acres in crops were found to re- 

 quire on the average 38 months of man labor per year. 

 Dairy farms in Dane County, Wisconsin, averaging 81 

 acres required 22 months of man labor, and grain and 

 live stock farms of 93 acres in Clinton County, Indiana, 

 required only 19 months per year. A cotton farm 85 per 

 cent as large as a live stock farm thus requires twice 

 as much man labor. The labor services required are also 

 more intensive in that they are distributed in peak loads. 

 As a result the average cotton farms have the smallest 

 acreage of improved land of any farms except those 



44 H. W. Hawthorne, et al., Farm Organization and Farm Manage- 

 ment in Sumter County, Georgia, Dept. of Agriculture Bulletin 

 1034, pp. 23 ff. 



