A FARM MANAGEMENT SURVEY IN BROOKS CO., GA. 



27 



labor efficiently employed. From 30 to 35 acres per mule would 

 seem to be the proper acreage under the conditions here found. The 

 soil on these farms is a light sand and is easily cultivated. On a 

 heavier type of soil, no doubt, fewer acres per mule would be found 

 to be more desirable. 



RELATION OF AMOUNT OF TILLAGE TO COSTS AND PROFITS. 



Much has been said regarding the benefits arising from deep plow- 

 ing, thorough and frequent preparation of the seedbed, and fre- 

 quency of cultivation, much of the advice on these points making 

 little or no distinction between types of soil. In gathering data for 

 the purpose of calculating costs of production in this study, the 

 amount of man and mule labor involved in each operation of each 

 crop was ascertained for each farm. It is thus possible to study the 

 profitableness of different amounts of tillage. 



Using the amount of mule labor expended per acre as probably 

 the best available measure of the degree of tillage, the effect of that 

 factor upon the profit's and costs of cotton have been tabulated and 

 the results shown in Table XL The cotton crop was used because it 

 was the most important crop grown here and because for it the 

 largest number of records are available. The figures upon which 

 this table is based include all of the mule labor spent on the cotton up 

 to and including the planting of the crop. 



Table XI. 



-Relation of amount of mule labor expended in preparatory tillage 

 of cotton to costs and profits (Brooks County, Ga.). 



Days mule labor per acre, preparatory tillage. 



Number 



of 

 records. 



Average 

 mule 

 days 



prepara- 

 tory 



tillage. 



Yield 

 of net 

 lint. 



Profit 

 per acre. 



Cost of 

 net lint 



per 

 pound. 



Less tiian 1.5 



15 



44 

 51 

 33 



1.14 

 1.77 

 2.22 

 2.89 



Pounds. 

 292 

 293 

 298 

 311 



$8.47 

 8.37 

 6.53 

 6.22 



$0. 085 



1.5 to 1.9 



.087 



2.0to2.4 



.093 



2.5 and over 



.096 







All records 



143 



2.12 



299 



7.04 



.091 











It will be seen that the increasing amounts of mule labor were ac- 

 companied by slowly increasing yields, but that these yields were not 

 sufficient to offset the increased cost. Thus the cost per pound of 

 net lint cotton increased regularly from 8.5 cents for the group that 

 expended less than 1.5 days of mule labor per acre, to 9.6 cents for 

 those on which more than 2.5 days were expended. These increased 

 costs cut the profits per acre from $8.47 to $6.2&. 



The results shown in this table would indicate that the extra labor 

 cost involved in the deeper and more prolonged preparatory tillage 



