FARM MANAGEMENT STUDY OF COTTON FARMS. 9 



borers — men, women, and children. A class of laborers known as 

 croppers 1 or "half hands" are generally of the white race hut a 

 considerable number are colored. Croppers are employed in han- 

 dling more than 20 per cent ol* the cotton of the count}-. (See 

 Table IV.) The transient labor is practically all colored and re- 

 mains in the towns, except during the chopping and picking seasons. 

 Cotton picking is done almost entirely by contract, the price paid 

 per hundred pounds being determined largely by the quality and 

 yield of cotton. 



AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT. 



Ellis County was organized in 1894, being formerly a part of 

 Navarro County. The first settlement was made near Forreston 

 about 1844. The early settlers came chiefly from Tennessee, Georgia, 

 and the Carolinas, and more than half of the present population of 

 nearly 54,000 is directly descended from these emigrants. There are 

 some foreign-born citizens and their descendants in the county, Bo- 

 hemians, Hungarians, and Germans comprising the greater part of 

 this element. There is a considerable number of negroes in th3 

 county, mostly confined to the towns. Prior to 1865 practically the 

 only enterprises were the production of cattle and sheep. Wheat 

 was first produced about 1850, but did not become important until 

 about 1880. During this period grain crops were raised on the up- 

 land and cotton made its first appearance in the bottoms along the 

 streams. All crop land was under fence until 1901, when th? fence 

 law was repealed. Alfalfa was first raised in the bottom of Mustang 

 Creek in 1890 and in 1896 it was produced in the Elm Thicket section. 



A very little cotton was produced in the county before 1860. The 

 first gin in operation consisted of a handmade two-roller outfit run 

 by hand. This was superseded by a power gin about 1881. From 

 the very beginning of the production of cotton the acreage of this 

 crop has increased, entirely supplanting the range at the present 

 time. The boll weevil caused some damage in Ellis County about 

 1903, following which considerable more attention was given to feed 

 and grain crops. From this period to the present, however, there has 

 been little damage to cotton from this source. 



Table I shows the trend of development in Ellis County from 1850 

 to the present. The area of the county is 587,520 acres, of which only 

 2,600 acres were improved land in 1850. From that date to the pres- 

 ent the development of crop farming has been rapid and uniform, 

 446,194 acres being improved in 1910. Cotton has held the largest 

 place in the cropping system, developing from 52,172 acres in 1880 

 to 274,666 acres in 1910. Corn has made advances parallel with 



1 For definition of cropper see p. 2. 

 41617°— IS— Bull. 659 2 



