UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



mm BULLETIN No. 651 



S^K-'^J-U 



Contribution from the Office of Farm Management 

 W. J. SPILLMAN, Chief 



Washington, D. C. 



May 8, 1918 



A FARM-MANAGEMENT STUDY IN ANDERSON 

 COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 



By A. G. Smith, Agriculturist. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction 1 



Summary 3 



Description of the area 4 



General characteristics of the farms surveyed 6 



Cost of producing crops 8 



Methods of measuring success in farming 10 



Yields 11 



Acres per work animal and size of farms 17 



Combination of enterprises 22 



Crop rotation 32 



INTRODUCTION. 



In a farm-management and cost-determination survey of 112 farms 

 in Williamston, Belton, Broadway, and Honeapath Townships, in 

 Anderson County, S. C. (see fig. 1), it was found that in the organi- 

 zation and operation of the farms there are three outstanding fac- 

 tors that determine the degree of success. These are (1) yields; 



(2) efficiency in use of labor and equipment, or, as it may be indi- 

 cated in this region, the acres of crops grown per work animal ; and 



(3) the combination of enterprises. Aside from these there are 

 minor factors, some of which are at times important; but the farmer 

 who shows a high degree of skill in keeping up yields, utilizing labor 

 and equipment, and in combining the proper enterprises in the 

 proper proportions in the farm organization is almost invariably 

 successful. 



A correlation study made from the data of the survey showed 

 that, as far as the methods used on these farms were concerned, 

 yields constituted 62 per cent, acres per work animal 22 per cent, 

 and the combination of enterprises 16 per cent of the total weight 

 of the three factors in influencing the per cent return on the invest- 

 ment. Thus it might be said that yields were three times as 

 important as acres per work animal and four times as important as 



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