STUDY OF FARMING IX SUMTER COUNTY, GEORGIA. 33 



RELATION OF TENURE TO YIELD PER ACRE. 



Table XI shows the average yields of the more important crops 

 grown in this region for each class of tenure, and for each race. This 

 table indicates the possibilities of increasing profits by getting higher 

 yields. The yield of cotton and of corn grown on the land worked 

 by wage-hand and share-cropper labor is shown separately. As a 

 rule the land worked by wage hands seems to return the highest 

 yields. However, this increase in yield can not be due to the superior 

 efficiency of the wage hand over the share cropper, for, as a rule, the 

 latter is the more industrious laborer. The three more vital factors 

 influencing the production of the higher yields on land worked by 

 wage-hand labor are: First, closer supervision by the operator or 

 manager; second, the land worked by wage hands usually includes 

 the most fertile land on the farm ; third, this land usually receives a 

 heavier application of fertilizer and may have more benefit from 

 vegetable matter plowed under than does land worked in other ways. 

 The large variation in yield of crops found in this area was not due 

 so much to the difference in the quality of the soil upon which they 

 are grown as to the difference in method of tillage, holding soil 

 fertility, and planting of seed. Keeping up the productiveness of 

 these soils is a problem of much concern. Practically all these 

 farmers have to depend upon growing crops for supplying organic 

 matter, a thing vital to the maintenance of productiveness in this 

 region. With the long growing season a tremendous quantity of 

 organic matter is used up each year. The soils also lose considerably 

 from erosion unless they are kept well covered. By plowing under 

 cotton and corn stalks and leguminous crops, together with the aid of 

 fertilizer, many of these farmers are keeping their land in a compara- 

 tively high state of fertility. Some of these farms could realize sub- 

 stantial increases in yields by selecting better seed as to germination 

 and climatic adaptation, using better tillage methods, and exercising 

 more care in the choice of fertilizers and their application. The 

 yields of crops on the farms in the different tenure classes show some 

 variation, but the comparison of most importance in Table XI is 

 that between the yields received on the farms of white and of colored 

 operators. A bale of cotton, as used in the discussion throughout 

 this bulletin, means 500 pounds of lint cotton. The average yield of 

 cotton on the 317 farms operated by white farmers was 0.55 of a bale 

 per acre, while on the 217 farms operated by colored farmers it was 

 0.41 bale per acre. Corn on the average yielded 4 bushels per acre 

 higher upon the white-operator farms than upon the colored-operator 

 farms. 



