UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



BULLETIN No. 602 



OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY 



Contribution from the Office of Farm Management 



W. J. SPILLMAN, Chief 



Washington, D. C. Y March 5, 1918 



VALUE OF A SMALL PLOT OF GROUND TO THE 

 LABORING MAN. 



A STUDY OF THE FOOD RAISED BY OPERATIVES IN 

 SOUTHERN COTTON-MILL TOWNS. 



By W. C. Funk, Scientific Assistant. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Profit and pleasure 1 



The cotton-mill village 2 



Quantity and value of food raised 



by cotton-mill operatives 3 



Page. 



The garden 4 



The poultry 8 



PigsJ 8 



The family cow r 9 



A large acreage of land in the United States can be used for agri- 

 cultural purposes which is not generally classed as farm land. This 

 area includes the numberless backyards and small holdings of less 

 than 3 acres within and close by cities and villages. Much of this 

 land already is being used for raising food for home consumption, but 

 more is lying idle. The importance of utilizing this land is obvious. 

 The family raising its food gets it at cost, which, as will be shown 

 later, represents only actual cash expenditures. 



Thousands of dollars worth of vegetables are raised in cities and 

 villages at very small cost. The work is done by members of the 

 consumer's family, with no cash expenditures except for seed and 

 fertilizer. The last census reported over one million cows not on 

 farms. Many of these are family cows kept by town dwellers to fur- 

 nish milk and butter. With cheap pasture available a cow may be 

 kept at a profit. The census reports over one million hogs not on 

 farms, which indicates that much pork is produced by village and 

 city families for home consumption. The number of poultry flocks 

 not on farms is not reported, but probably more families keep 

 chickens than keep cows or swine. These data show that the idea of 

 utilizing small plots of ground for raising food is not a new one and 

 emphasize the possibilities yet unrealized. (See pi. 1.) 



11191°— 18— Bull. 602 



