60 BTJLLETIM 492, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The figure shows the distribution of cost of producing cotton on 

 the owner and tenant farms and the proportion of the cost that was 

 cash and that was noncash. On the owner farms about one-third of 

 the labor was performed by the operator and his family, thus making 

 the cash outlay for labor 36.2 per cent of the total cost. The expense 

 for the use of the real estate was only about one-third cash outlay. 

 The taxes, insurance, and repairs must be met each year, but the 

 other two-thirds of this expense represent the interest charge, which 

 was not cash outlay. The profits these farmers may realize for the 

 use of the land will vary from 3 r ear to year, depending upon the yields 

 and prices they are able to secure for this crop. The cost of ferti- 

 lizer represents an expense that must be met each year, and under 

 normal conditions it will equal about one-sixth of the total expense. 

 A portion of the miscellaneous expenses was not cash. About one- 

 fourth of these expenses was for interest and depreciation upon 

 working capital while the other portion was a cash outlay. 



In summing up the cost of cotton production upon these owner 

 farms, about 32 per cent of the total was for labor of the operator 

 and his family and interest and depreciation upon the investment. 

 The other 68 per cent was cash paid out for the production of this 

 crop and amounted to 7.35 cents per pound of lint. 



In case of the tenants, about 37 per cent was for the labor of the 

 operator and his family and interest upon his working capital and 

 63 per cent, or 6.70 cents per pound, was cash outlay. 



SIZE OF FARM AND YIELD OF COTTON AS FACTORS AFFECTING THE COST OF 



PRODUCTION. 



The table following (Table XXXI) shows the effect of both size 

 of farm and yield per acre upon the cost of production. If we 

 arrange the farms in size groups there is a gradual decrease in the 

 cost of production per pound of lint from the smallest-size group 

 up to the largest-size group, and when the farms are arranged in 

 } 7 ield of cotton per acre groups there is also a decrease in the cost 

 of production of lint per pound from the lowest-yield group up to 

 the highest-yield group. This indicates that both size of farm and 

 yield per acre have some effect in reducing the cost per pound of lint. 

 But when the farms are grouped by size of farm the groups are not 

 all uniform in yield per acre, and when they are grouped by yield 

 per acre the groups are not all uniform in size of farm. Therefore, 

 in order to eliminate one of these factors while studying the other, 

 the farms have been grouped according to their size, and each size 

 group separated into subgroups according to their yields per acre. 

 We may now study the effect of size of farm upon the cost of pro- 

 duction by comparing the farms of different sizes with the same 



