50 BUULETIN 1034, U. S. DEPARTMElirT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



When properly organized, a greater diversity of enterprises gives 

 opportunity to use land, labor, mules, and machinery more effectively 

 throughout the year, and the income is usually more evenly dis- 

 tributed than that from cotton alone, thus making it easier for the 

 farmer to operate on a cash basis during the spring and summer 

 months when money is needed for paying the farm expenses. Fail- 

 ures in individual crops are often due to conditions over which the 

 farmer has no control, such as weather, markets, or pests. If a farmer 

 is raising several important crops it is not likely that all will fail in 

 any one year. 



An increase in diversity also aids in the establishment of a crop 

 rotation. A well-planned rotation, designed to improve the soil and 

 increase yields per acre, should be the aim of all these farmers, since 

 rotation not only increases the supply of farm feeds, but, more im- 

 portant still, tends to increase the production of the main money 

 crop. For, after all, cotton is the staple crop of the region, and the 

 general scheme of farming must' be shaped with the importance of the 

 cotton crop in view. 



FACTORS AFFECTING THE SUCCESSFUL OPERATION OF THESE 



FARMS. 



SIZE OF BUSINESS AND YIELD OF COTTON PER ACRE. 



FARM EARNINGS. 



To study factors that aided in increasing farm earnings, an analysis 

 was made of the farms operated by white owners with 100 acres 

 or under of tilled land, arranged in three groups with reference to 

 the yield of lint cotton. (See Table 28.) Almost without exception, 

 both in 1913 and 1918, the farm income, labor income, per cent on 

 capital, and value of family living from the farm, increased for the 

 various groups as the size of business increased and as the yield of 

 cotton per acre increased. (No data were obtained on the value of 

 family living from the farm in 1913.) The high earnings of the 

 farms with high yields would seem to point out the shortest road 

 to greater profits. Doubtless 25 per cent or more of these farmers 

 could materially increase their earnings by following economical 

 practices making for higher yields per acre. 



Table 29 shows that the relation of size of farm and yield of cotton 

 per acre to farm income, labor income, and per cent return on capital 

 follows the same trend for the colored-tenant farms as for the white- 

 owner f^rms. 



A comparison of Tables 28 and 29 shows that the percentage returns 

 on capital are larger in many instances for the tenant fanns than for 

 the owner farms. Considering the wide difference in capital in- 

 volved, no conclusions can logically be drawn from these figures alone 

 regarding the relative degree of success of these two classes of farm- 

 ers. Indeed, not only the capital involved, but production per farm. 



