D8 BULLETIN 1034, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Did the operators of the small farms consider their own labor and 
management worth as much as did those of the large farms? 
No. The farmers operating the small farms valued their own labor 
and management at less than half as much as did the farmers operat- 
ing the large farms. 
Thus it will be seen that many factors bear on the question of 
differences in the production and returns of these farms. On some 
farms an outstanding single factor was decisive, while on some others 
no single factor determined results. Variation in the yielding ca- 
pacity of the land was no doubt a prominent factor in some instances 
and this influence is reflected in land values, as shown in Tables 30 
and 31. There was a tendency for farms with low yields to use less 
working capital and expend less money in operation than those with 
high yields, and more of the farms with the low yields were under 
mortgage than of those with the high yields. These facts suggest 
lack of capital and possibly the need of better credit facilities on 
some of the farms. In a few cases age or experience of the operator 
appear to be the important factors affecting production and returns. 
- An occasional farm was found with poor yields apparently due to 
the indifference of the operator. 
In this connection it should ever be borne in mind that the capacity 
and efficiency of the farmer is an important factor bearing on yields 
and profits. Judgment as to what to do, how to do it, and when to 
do it is always telling in results. 
The data in Tables 30 and 31 may be said to show that any given 
farm in this area, to be profitable, should follow the type of farming 
best adapted to its conditions, should be efficient in the use of both 
man and horse labor, adequately yet economically equipped, and as 
good as or better than the average farm of its type in size of business, 
yield of crops, and returns for live stock. 
BEARING OF FARM ORGANIZATION ON COST OF PRODUCING 
COTTON: 
When a farm or an agricultural area derives the greater part of its 
income from a single product, the production cost per unit of the 
product for a given year may be determined with reasonable accuracy 
from the data collected through the regular farm business analysis 
study. An example is furnished in Sumter County, where the cotton 
crop occupied 59 per cent of the crop acreage and constituted 84 per 
cent of the farm receipts in 1913, and 42 per cent of the crop acreage 
and 76 per cent of the farm receipts in 1918. The crop acreage not 
7™The results of the study of cost of producing cotton on 80 of these farms was pub- 
lished in U. S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 896. A study of the farms as 
‘compared with the average of all these farms showed them to be somewhat above the 
average, and this was reflected in a lower cost per pound of lint as compared with the 
average of the 550 farms. 
