COST OF COTTON PRODUCTION 137 



products before they are made. At all events 

 there is not the degree of uncertainty about it 

 that the farmer has to meet. 



We have mentioned some of the natural 

 causes or climatic conditions which may cause 

 wide variations in yields and profits, but 

 the farmer himself must be taken into account 

 as one of the greatest factors. One man can 

 manage his cotton farm so as to make handsome 

 profit, while another under the same natural 

 surroundings, but with a less degree of business 

 ability, agricultural knowledge, or industry, 

 would produce the crop at a net loss. 



To get out of cotton farming under the new 

 order of things more than a mere existence a 

 man must use brains and incessant industry 

 along with his physical labor. The days of 

 profitable farming along the old trodden paths 

 are numbered. By this we do not mean that 

 there is no place for cotton on the small farm, 

 for, if properly managed, there is a possibility 

 of greater profits than on the larger farms. 

 The ordinary methods followed on both the 

 one-horse and the larger farms must give way 

 to more up-to-date management. Under a dif- 

 ferent system two horses can be used profit- 



