I i i ] ECONOMIC WORKINGS OF THE SYSTEMS 1 1 1 



Assuming that an exceptional case has been cited, as 

 it certainly is, and assuming that the planter who brought 

 about such results possesses unusual managing ability, 

 as he most assuredly does, still the results are worthy of 

 a close examination and comparison with the results 

 normally obtained under the cropping system. 1 



As a usual thing a cropper and his family working 

 one mule produce from five to eight bales of cotton 

 together with perhaps fifty or seventy-five dollars' worth 

 of corn and other produce. It is on the basis of a liberal 

 estimate therefore to assume that his crop turns out 

 about as follows : 



8 bales of cotton, 4000 lbs., at .08 per pound $320.00 



210 bu. cotton seed at .15 36.00 



60 bu. corn at .60 36.00 



$392.00 



From this amount the following common expenses are to 

 be deducted : 



3 tons fertilizers $60.00 



Ginning 8 bales of cotton 10.00 



Bagging and ties . . . N 8.00 



$78.00 



This leaves $314 to be divided between the landlord 



as the patch above referred to and some twenty-five or thirty families 

 are cultivating it. In view of his other interests he employs a manager 

 to supervise his large farming operations. The planter devoted only 

 odd moments to the 30-acre patch, except that when he had a large 

 body of extra laborers employed in it as in the case of " hoeing over " 

 the crop, he would remain with the hands in the field. In such cases 

 he would personally supervise the work of about twenty hands, and so 

 definite were his methods, that if a hand should wantonly stop work 

 five or ten minutes before the working day was over, his wages for that 

 day suffered by just so much. 



1 It is to be understood that the case has been given in illustration of 

 the reasoning in this chapter and not in its support. 



