2 BULLETIN 961, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 



aid in planning the year's work, especially in determining how large 

 an acreage can be handled by a given crew at the busiest season of 

 the year, or how much extra help will be needed at a given time. It 

 is understood, of course, that no plans or work schedules which may 

 be worked out from this information can be followed blindly without 

 reference to variations in weather and other conditions. 



SCOPE AND METHOD OF STUDY. 



The data for this bulletin were obtained by personally interviewing 

 several hundred farmers in the hill section of Louisiana. From these 

 men there were obtained 677 detailed reports on the principal crops 

 grown. These reports cover all the operations performed on each 

 crop, the size of crew, the implements used, and the farmer's estimate 

 of the acreage. 



The area in which the data were collected is the northwest quarter 

 of the State of Louisiana. The climate is warm and even, the grow- 

 ing season extending from about March 1 to November 5, or usually 

 about 250 days. The rainfall averages about 45 inches, and is well 

 distributed throughout the growing season. The fall months are 

 usually the driest of the year. This part of the State is rolling and 

 has many streams. More than half of the area is in woodland. The 

 farms on which the records were obtained average somewhat over 100 

 acres, with about 85 acres of crops. Cotton is the chief money crop, 

 and in many instances practically the only crop sold. 



The hill land is sandy clay loam, or sometimes gravelly loam. The 

 type of soil found in the little branch bottoms which are common on 

 many farms is usually silt or clay loam. 



Farms in this area are operated by the farmer and his family alone 

 or with the help of a hired man or share cropper. On many farms 

 negro labor is used for part of the year. In general, the upland 

 farms are operated by the farm family with the help of negroes. 



SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 



To make easy any comparison between the various crops, labor 

 requirements per acre are summarized in one table (Table I). Ref- 

 erence to the detailed tables further on will show that the labor 

 requirements as given here do not represent precisely the full time 

 spent by these men on their crops, but are simply the aggregate of 

 man and mule labor requirements of those standard operations which 

 are performed by all of the farmers. 



The reliability of these figures depends partly upon the number 

 of records considered and partly upon the uniformity or lack of 

 uniformity of practices of individual farmers. Where there are a 

 large number of records, lack of uniformity is neutralized. The 

 number of records each on intertilled cowpeas, peanuts (first crop), 



