UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BULLETIN No. 651 „ v 
Contribution from the Office of Farm Management ^»Ly 
W. J. SPILLMAN, Chief jSty^Jt* 
Washington, D. C. ▼ May 8, 1918 
A FARM-MANAGEMENT STUDY IN ANDERSON 
COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 
By A. G. Smith, Agriculturist. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Introduction 1 
Summary 3 
Description of the area 4 
General characteristics of the farms surveyed 6 
Cost of producing crops 8 
Page. 
Methods of measuring success in farming 10 
Yields 11 
Acres per work animal and size of farms 17 
Combination of enterprises 22 
Crop rotation 32 
INTRODUCTION. 
In a farm-management and cost-determination survey of 112 farms 
in Williamston, Belton, Broadway, and Honeapath Townships, in 
Anderson County, S. C. (see fig. 1), it was found that in the organi- 
zation and operation of the farms there are three outstanding fac- 
tors that determine the degree of success. These are (1) yields; 
(2) efficiency in use of labor and equipment, or, as it may be indi- 
cated in this region, the acres of crops grown per work animal; and 
(3) the combination of enterprises. Aside from these there are 
minor factors, some of which are at times important; but the farmer 
who shows a high degree of skill in keeping up yields, utilizing labor 
and equipment, and in combining the proper enterprises in the 
proper proportions in the farm organization is almost invariably 
successful. 
A correlation study made from the data of the survey showed 
that, as far as the methods used on these farms were concerned, 
yields constituted 62 per cent, acres per work animal 22 per cent, 
and the combination of enterprises 16 per cent of the total weight 
of the three factors in influencing the per cent return on the invest- 
ment. Thus it might be said that yields were three times as 
important as acres per work animal and four times as important as 
33389°— 18— Bull. 651 1 
