FARM MANAGEMENT IN SUMTER COUNTY, GA. 25 



already well established on the white-owner farms. Hogs yielded 1.7 

 per cent of the total farm receipts on white-owner farms in 1913, 

 and 5.6 per cent in 1918, thus ranking next to cotton. A cooperative 

 hog market has been organized at Plains, a village in the western 

 part of the county, and at various times during the year the farmers 

 arrange sales of sufficient size to attract outside buyers. 



Sales of cattle and poultry and their products increased only 

 slightly. Prices of cattle and hay have been relatively low. Receipts 

 from man and team labor, ginning and other machine work, and 

 woodland products are of very little importance. Rents amounted 

 to 4.4 per cent of the total receipts on white-owner farms in 1913 and 

 5.1 per cent in 1918. 



DISTRIBUTION OF EXPENSES. 



Farm labor is the largest expense item in the operation of these 

 farms. The labor is performed by wage hands, share croppers, and 

 members of the farm operator's family, besides that performed by 

 the operator himself. Considerable additional labor also is necessary 

 at the time of chopping and picking the cotton crop and at other 

 periods of the year with high labor demands. The labor expense 

 ranged from 42.8 per cent to 50.9 per cent of the total expenses in 

 the different operator classes in 1913, and from 50.6 to 58.9 per cent in 

 1918. (See Table 9 and fig. 5.) 



The greatest increase in labor cost was for cropper labor. This was 

 not only because the increase in the price of cotton increased cropper 

 wages, but also because the percentage of the crop area worked by 

 croppers increased. The white operators' actual expense for wage 

 hands and cotton picking and chopping was less in 1918 than in 1913. 

 Family labor was of greatest relative importance on the colored-op- 

 erator farms. The probability of an increase in the price of cotton 

 served to increase the advantage of the share system over the wage 

 system from the laborer's standpoint, since wages naturally lag be- 

 hind an advance in prices. This condition prevailed in 1918, con- 

 sequently more of the cotton was grown by share-cropper labor 

 than by wage labor. 



The expense for repairs and depreciation of machinery, buildings, 

 fences, and terraces is of considerable importance. The type of 

 machinery used entails a rather heavy replacement expense each year. 

 The construction and lack of care of many of the farm buildings is 

 such that they depreciate faster than in many other parts of the 

 country. These items represented 5.7 per cent of the total farm 

 expense on colored-tenant farms in 1913 to 8.8 per cent in 1918 and 

 11 per cent of the total farm expense each year on the white-owner 

 farms. The actual expense for machinery and buildings was greater 

 during the latter year for all groups of farm operators. 



