FARM MANAGEMENT STUDY OF COTTON FARMS. 



17 



cropper cotton is approximately 1.8 cents per pound, while (lie mar- 

 gin of profit to the cropper is 4.4 cents per pound. 



Two reasons may be cited why owners are Mailing to stand a 

 higher cost for their share of the cotton raised by cropper labor than 

 the cropper's share costs the cropper. The owners have the alterna- 

 tive of raising cotton with wage or hired labor, or they may employ 

 croppers and allow them half the crop produced as wages. In the 

 first case, the owner must take all the risks in producing the crop, 

 whereas, in the second case, the cropper shares the risk equally with 

 the owner. Further, under the wage system the owner must provide 

 all the man labor and oversee it, whereas with croppers the latter 

 must furnish and oversee the hired labor. 



In Table VI, 79 of these farms are grouped according to the capital 

 of the operator. It is a striking fact that every operator with less 

 than $4,000 capital is a tenant, while every one with more than this 

 is an owner ; and this in spite of the fact that tenants with an aver- 

 age capital of only $1,200 make nearly as much as owners with 

 $10,000, while tenants with $2,500 invested make distinctly greater 

 incomes than owners with an investment four times as great. These 

 figures indicate clearly that an operator ivith small capital can make 

 a much better income as a tenant than as an owner. Similar results 

 have been found in all farm-management surveys, made in all parts 

 of the United States. 



Table VI. — Relation of capital invested by farm operator to income of the 

 operators of owner and tenant farms (79 farms, Ellis County, Tex., in 191b). 





Owner farms. 



Tenant farms. 



Operator's capital. 



Num- 

 ber 

 rec- 

 ords. 



Crop 



acres. 



Average 

 capital. 



Farm 



in- 

 come. 



Num- 

 ber 

 rec- 

 ords. 



Crop 



acres. 



Average capital. 



Farjn 





Landlord . 



Tenant 

 oper- 

 ator. 



income 



of 

 tenant. 



$516 to $1,966 











28 

 14 



91 



131 



$13, 453 

 20, 79S 



SI, 212 

 2,375 



S751 



82,015 to $3,237 











1,157 



$4,709 to $13,665 



15 

 17 

 5 



60 

 89 

 141 



$10, 112 

 17,088 

 31,100 



$850 

 1,398 

 2,278 





$14,203 to $19,548 











$21,106 to $41,360 























From the results shown in Table VI, it would seem probable 

 that the groups of owners having an average capital of about $10,000 

 could do much better financially if they would rent large farms and 

 operate as tenants. But not a single operator with $4,000 or more 

 capital is doing this. Since, theoretically at least, they could make 

 much larger incomes as tenants, there must be very important reasons 

 why they choose to operate as owners of smaller farms. Generally 

 speaking, wherever surveys of this kind have been made in this coun- 

 41617°— 18— Bull. 659 3 



