A FARM MANAGEMENT SURVEY IN BROOKS CO., GA. 



21 



which equal but 80 per cent of the average farmer's earnings secured 

 from farms of similar size. On the other groups of farms with in- 

 creasing average crop yields, the index of earnings increased regu- 

 larly to 116, while the corresponding returns on investment increased 

 similarly from 2.9 per cent to 8.2 per cent. 



Table VII. — Relation of crop index to farm, returns {Brooks County, Ga.). 



Crop index.o 



Number 

 of famis. 



Average 



crop 



index. 



Farmer's 

 earnings. 



Index of 

 earnings. 



Per cent 

 return on 

 invest- 

 ment. 





13 

 43 

 21 

 29 



69 

 92 

 104 

 126 



$586 



708 



840 



1,061 



80 

 87 

 108 

 116 



2.9 



0.80 to 0.99 



5.6 



1.00 to 1.09 



6.7 





8.2 









106 



100 



816 



100 



6.2 







a See definition of crop index on p. 22. 



The close dependence of profits upon crop yields can be shown 

 more concretely by considering for each crop separately the relation 

 between costs and yields. This relation is shown by Table VIII. 1 

 In the case of every crop, as the yields increased the cost per unit of 

 crop decreased regularly, while the profits per acre correspondingly 

 increased. Thus, the cotton yields of less than 200 pounds per acre 

 of net lint cost 11.6 cents per pound to produce, but this cost de- 

 creased to 7.5 cents per pound when the yields exceeded 400 pounds 

 per acre. The low yields mentioned show a loss of $1.63 per acre, 

 while the high yields returned an acre profit of $18.19. The farms 

 that secured the higher yields of cotton were the ones which also 

 returned the largest net profits for the year's business. Thus the 

 farms that secured cotton yields of less than 200 pounds per acre 

 returned farmers' earnings equal to only 47 per cent of the average 

 returned by all farms, of a similar size, whereas the farms yielding 

 more than 400 pounds per acre returned earnings 37 per cent larger 

 than the average. 



1 It will be noticed that the number of records for cotton and corn are greater tban 

 the number of farms surveyed. This is due to the fact that the costs of the wage crops 

 have been kept separate from those of the croppers, since the two sets of crops are 

 handled by more or less independent systems and are treated differently. Thus, many of 

 the farms furnish two separate records of costs of cotton and corn. In this and one or 

 two other tabulations these separate records have been treated as though coming from 

 different farms. 



