STUDY OF FARMING IN SUMTER COUNTY, GEORGIA. 20 



The receipt from live stock and live-stock products in this area is 

 a very small item. Very little attention is given the live-stock in- 

 dustry. Aside from the mules, usually only enough cows, hogs, and 

 poultry are kept for farm use. With the present yields it requires 

 practically all the crop land above that devoted to cotton for sup- 

 plying the needs of farm and family in carrying on the business. 



Hogs are the most important live-stock enterprise. Besides sup- 

 plying farm needs, they return more than any other class of stock. 

 So many laborers are required for the operation of these farms that 

 a large number of hogs are slaughtered each year for supplying them. 



The other live-stock receipts are from the sale of dairy products, 

 cattle, horses, mules, colts, and poultry, and on most of the tenures 

 constitute about 1 per cent of the total farm receipts. 



The receipts from miscellaneous sources return these farms a small 

 income each year. These miscellaneous receipts include such items 

 as returns for labor done outside the farm, for wood sold, and for 

 cotton ginning, and rent of land or buildings. 



THE RELATION OF TENURE TO DISTRIBUTION OF FARM EXPENSES. 



In Table IX is given the percentage distribution of the more im- 

 portant items of expense. Almost all the labor in this region is per- 

 formed by the colored man and his family. The wage hand is paid 

 from $10 to $18 per month and rations. It is the general custom to 

 issue the rations to the laborers by the week or month. Some of 

 these rations are purchased and the operator usually attends to the 

 buying of these provisions and issues them to the hands. Rations 

 are furnished wage hands and advanced to croppers. Some of the 

 larger farms maintain commissaries or stores, which give the owner 

 the advantage of buying by wholesale. Labor is generally employed 

 by the year in order to have it at times when most needed. In many 

 cases it is necessary to advance wages. Practically all labor is con- 

 tracted for during the latter part of December or at the first of the 

 year. 



The first four items of expense shown in Table IX include the 

 entire expenditure for labor other than that done by the operator, 

 namely, expenses for wage hands, for extra labor for " chopping " 

 and picking cotton, cropper's share of crops, and the value of the 

 labor performed by the operator's family. In case of the white 

 farmers, over one-half of the labor expense is paid to share croppers 

 and their families. On the colored farms a much higher percentage 

 of the labor is performed by members of the family. The variation 

 in the expense for labor is from 41 per cent to 56 per cent of the 

 total farm expenditures in the various tenure classes. The expense 

 for repairs of machinery and buildings is greater upon the white 

 operators' farms, but the expense for fence repairs and terraces is 



