UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



% BULLETIN No. 961 mmk 



"AkV^^^V^*!^ *-'*'"'"''"'•'"'* from *Vj 



•^lk\-/i»#-» Ihe Office of Farm Management and Farm Economics W-iy. j»i 



H. C. TAYLOR, Chief J^^'^^^U 



Washington, D. C. T August 13, 1921 



STANDARDS OF LABOR ON THE HILL FARMS OF 



LOUISIANA. 



By 



M. Bruce Gates, Assistant Agriculturist, and L. A. Reynoldson, Junior 



Farm Economist . 



(Section of Farm Organization, F. W. Peck in charge.) 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Introduction 1 



Scope and method of study j 



Summary of results 2 



Significauce of crew duty and labor ro(niiremciUs -1 



Soil prepa-ation 5 



Operations on individual crops 10 



INTRODUCTION. 



This bulletin is a statement of the prevailing standards of labor for 

 crews of various sizes at field and crop work and the labor require- 

 ments of crops per acre for the hill sections of Louisiana. Though 

 the data presented are strictly applicable only to that locality, it is 

 believed that they mil apply in large measure to the upland portions 

 of the other Cotton Belt States where types of farming, implements 

 used, kind of labor employed, and character of soil are similar. In 

 making this statement the intention is not to convey the idea that 

 conditions in all of these localities are uniform, but that such dift'er- 

 ences as there are in soil, topography, kind of labor used, weeds, etc., 

 are not sufficient to affect materially the amount of work done per 

 day or the labor requirements per acre. The climate throughout 

 these States varies so little that the season and time available for a 

 given operation 'are about the same tliroughout the region, except 

 that the season is a little earlier or a little later as one goes south or 

 north of the area surveyed. 



It is believed that the information in the following pages will be of 

 great help in replanning a farm or in readjusting crop acreages so as 

 to utilize better both man and animal labor, or in determining the 

 kind and sizes of new machinery to purchase. It should also be an 



•48308°— 21— Bull. %1 — 1 



