'FARM-MAHAGEMENT STUDY IK ANDERSON CO., S. 0. 
13 
and undoubtedly accounts for much of the difference in yield on 
different farms. But in this study it was not practicable to secure 
the complete history of soil treatment for a series of years for each 
farm. This is not so unfortunate, however, as might at first appear, 
for it is fair to assume that the treatment of soil on each farm, during 
the year to which this study chiefly relates was, in general, the same 
that had been in vogue during several previous years. 
Other factors having an important influence on crop yields are 
manure and commercial fertilizers, the succession of crops on the 
land, or the crop rotation, live stock, the kind of seed, and the methods 
of tillage used. So far as data are available concerning the effects 
of these factors they are given in the following pages. 
One of the principal methods of maintaining or increasing yields in 
the Belton area is by the application of fertilizers. These consist 
principally of acid phosphate, cottonseed meal, nitrate of soda, and 
CROP 
COST 
COST PER ACRE 
$ 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 
COTTON 
CORN 
OATS & OAT HAV 
WHEAT 
AVERAGE PER 
CROP ACRE 
3.84 
2.39 
1.94 
4.37 
l 
Fig. 5.— Cost of fertilizer per acre. 
some form of potash salts, although some basic slag, sulphate of 
ammonia, fish scrap, blood meal, and tankage are used. 
The common custom in applying fertilizers (see fig. 5) is to make 
the heaviest applications to cotton, the next heaviest to corn, to 
apply only small amounts to oats and wheat, and none at all to cow- 
peas. The average cost per acre of fertilizer applied in 1914 to the 
principal crops was: Cotton, $4.88; corn, $3.84; oats and oat hay, 
$2.39; and wheat, $1.94. The average for all crops was $4.37 per 
crop acre. Most of the barnyard manure, of which there was only 
a small quantity, was applied to cotton. 1 
1 The economic reason for the heavier fertilization of cotton is its higher value per acre and the consequent 
greater profit from fertilizing. The average acre value of cotton and cotton seed in 1914 was $32.26, and of 
corn and corn fodder $19.92. Suppose, for example, an application of $4 worth of fertilizer per acre increased 
the yield of the crop by 25 per cent, which is not an uncommon occurrence, the gross value of the increase 
of cotton would be $8.07 per acre, leaving a margin of $4.07 as against an increase with corn of $4.98 and a 
margin of $0.98. 
The relative prices of fertilizers and crops, particularly cotton, determine the amount of fertilizers it is 
profitable to apply. An increase in the relative price of fertilizers reduces the amount, while an increase 
in the price of crops increases it. The tables are based upon the 1914 prices of fertilizer. The use of 
fertilizers in South Carolina has enormously increased within the last quarter of a century, principally 
because of the higher prices received for cotton. 
