32 BULLETIN 1034, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



tilizer and the yields and 2:)rices of cotton in 1920 and 1921, the 

 earnings for these latter years must have been apparently less than 

 in 1918. 



FAKM INCOME. 



The farm income was more than twice as much in 1918 as in 1913. 

 Farm income, representing the combined earnings of farm capital 

 and the farmer's labor and management, is some indication of the 

 size of business conducted and of the prosperity of groups of farmers. 

 The average farm income for white-tenant farms and colored-owner 

 farms was about one-half that for white-owner farms, and for col- 

 ored-tenant farms the total farm income was only about one-third 

 that of the farms operated by white owners. In the case of farms 

 operated by tenants the farm income must be divided between the 

 tenants and the landlords, the tenants in Sumter County getting about 

 60 per cent (ranging from an average of 55 per cent in 1913 to an 

 average of 65 per cent in 1918) of the total farm income, and the land- 

 lords about 40 per cent. The farm income of the white tenants was 

 about one-third and of the colored tenants about one-fifth that of the 

 white owners. 



The distribution of farms by the amount of farm income for these 

 different classes of farms is shown in Table 13. Over 50 per cent of 

 the white-owner farms and 90 per cent of the colored-tenant farms 

 returned farm incomes of $1,000 or under, and in 1918 over 50 per 

 cent of the white-owner farms and 75 per cent of the colored-tenant 

 farms returned farm incomes of $2,000 or under. The average farm 

 income for the white owners was $1,665 in 1913, with about 25 per 

 cent $2,000 or over, and in 1918 the average was $3,Tll, with about 

 25 per cent about $4,000. About 50 per cent of them made farm in- 

 comes below $1,000 in 1913, and about the same percentage below 

 $2,000 in 1918. Similar comparisons for the other groups shown in 

 Table 13 indicate that but few farms returned high farm incomes, 

 while many returned low farm incomes. 



For both white and colored tenant farms shown in Table 13, after 

 the total farm income is divided between tenant and landlord, the 

 farm income of the tenant was rarely very large. 



LABOR INCOME. 



The labor income, representing the returns for the farmer's labor 

 and management (after deducting 7 per cent interest for the use of 

 the farm capital from the farm income) averaged from three to four 

 times as much in 1918 as in 1913. 



The wide variations in the labor incomes for the various farms 

 under study in this area are shown in figure 6. This chart shows the 

 tendency toward higher incomes in 1918. 



Table 14 shows the proportion of farms falling within specified 

 labor-income groups. In 1913 from 65 to 83 per cent of the various 



