352 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



Until they are made available it will be impossible to work out, except 

 by the slow and costly methods of experience, systems of farming 

 that will give a satisfactory distribution of labor and which will give 

 the farmer something profitable to do at all seasons of the year, while 

 at the same time no part of the year will be so crowded with labor as 

 to make it difficult to get the work done in its proper season. With 

 such data it will be possible to formulate systems that will not only 

 distribute the labor advantageously but will greatly reduce the number 

 of work animals necessary to farm a given area. The average farm 

 horse in the northern states works on the average for the year only 

 about three hours a day. Yet at certain seasons of the year he not 

 only works 10 or 12 hours, but the farmer seldom has enough horses 

 to do the required work. With a properly planned cropping system 

 it will be possible so to distribute the horse labor as to secure twice 

 the above amount of work per horse, thus reducing by one-half the 

 number of horses required to farm a given area. By distributing the 

 work in this manner it will become possible to prevent a great deal of 

 duplication in farm implements as well. 



Most farm enterprises have a critical period; that is, they require 

 more work at some seasons of the year than at others. The cotton 

 crop, for instance, has two periods at which it demands an unusual 

 amount of work i.e., chopping out (thinning) and picking. A man 

 can prepare the land, plant, and cultivate a much larger area than he 

 can chop out or pick. It is customary in the cotton states for all the 

 members of the grower's family who can handle a hoe or pick cotton, 

 both light tasks suitable to women and children, to aid at these 

 critical periods. Even with this help one man can still do all the 

 other work on a much larger crop than an ordinary farm family can 

 care for during the critical periods. It is clear that the limiting factor 

 in the area of cotton a fanner can manage properly is the area he and 

 his available labor can thin and pick. Where the available labor is 

 limited to the members of the farmer's family, this area is so small in 

 the case of the average family that a single horse can do all the horse 

 labor required on the farm. This accounts for the general prevalence 

 of one-horse farming in the South. So long as southern agriculture 

 is based as largely on cotton as it has usually been during the last 

 generation, the one-horse farm will be an economic necessity. 



There is a better way, however, even for the cotton country. By 

 the proper selection of enterprises the cotton grower may produce a 

 large acreage of other crops, especially if he utilizes two horses, without 



