FARM MANAGEMENT IN ‘SUMTER COUNTY, GA. 71 
Labor represented the largest item of cost, ranging from 40.9 per 
cent of the total cost on colored-owner farms to 44.5 per cent of the 
total cost on colored-tenant farms in 1913, and from 46.2 per cent on 
the white-owner farms to 52.6 per cent on the white-tenant farms in 
1918. The labor expense was relatively more in 1918 than in 1913. 
The greater part of the labor on white-owner farms was hired, while 
most of that on colored-tenant farms was performed by the farmers 
and their families. 
Of-the other items shown in the tables and charts, interest on cap- 
ital was next in importance. This represented from 20 to 25 per cent 
of the total farm costs. Interest on capital was largely a noncash 
cost. This item of cost was of minor importance to the tenant, 
since his capital represented such a small proportion of the total 
capital involved, but to the landlord interest on capital is the largest 
consideration. 
The expense for fertilizer was next in importance, varying from 
14.2 to 16.5 per cent of the total for the farms of the several tenures 
in 1913, and from 10.4 to 14.8 per cent in 1918. The reduced appli- 
cation of fertilizer per crop acre in 1918 made this item of expense 
relatively less than in 1913. 
Machinery represented from 5.7 to 6.7 per cent of the total costs 
for the farms of the several tenures in 1913 and from 5.2 to 6.2 per 
cent in 1918. 
The cost items above mentioned represented about 90 per cent of 
the total costs for each class of operators each year. Taxes, insur- 
ance, and other costs represented about 10 per cent. 
The cash items of cost on the white-owner farms represented 68 
per cent of the total in 1913 and 66 per cent in 1918; for white 
tenants, 58 per cent in 1913 and 59 per cent in 1918; for colored 
owners, 54.5 per cent in 1913 and 54 per cent in 1918; and for colored 
tenants 43 per cent in 1913 and 41 per cent in 1918. Seventy per 
cent of the white-tenant operators’ costs were cash each year, but 
only 50.5 per cent of the colored-tenant operators’ costs in 19138, and 
47.3 in 1918, were cash. Most of the labor involved in the operation 
of the colored-tenant farms is performed by the tenant and his family, 
and as labor is the largest item of expense in producing cotton, he is 
enabled to operate with the lowest cash costs. 
The cost figure determined for each farmer concerned in this 
study makes full allowance for fair pay for the farmers’ labor and 
management and a fair rate of interest upon the capital involved. 
Thus cotton might have been sold at a somewhat lower figure than 
this cost without actual loss of money, but the net return would be 
less than fair wages for the labor performed by the operator and 
his family and less than a normal interest rate upon the capital in- 
volved. 
