16 
BULLETIN 651, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The preparation of the land and the cultivation of the crops are 
other factors affecting yields. These depend on the labor devoted to 
tillage and the quality of the work. Labor used is frequently an 
individual problem or a matter of judgment. The amount of work 
that can profitably be done in preparing land for planting and in 
cultivating crops varies with the condition of the land, the prevalence 
and kinds of weeds present, the earliness or lateness of the season, 
the rainfall, etc. For this reason any study based on the labor 
devoted to tillage per acre may be misleading. It may be noted, 
however, that the farmers who used above the average amount of 
man labor and mule labor, both in preparing the land and in culti- 
vating the crop, produced the most cotton and corn per acre. 
The quality of the tillage depends upon both the character of the 
implements used and the efficiency of the men and mules operating 
them. A careful man with a strong mule may do better work with 
a one-horse plow than an inefficient man using two small mules and 
a two-horse turnplow. On the whole, however, farmers using good 
implements and good work stock made the best yields, even where 
the same amount of fertilizer was used. More improvement can be 
made by increasing the quality of the tillage than by increasing the 
labor devoted to it. It is not possible, however, to increase the 
yields in this region as much by improving the tillage as by increas- 
ing the application of fertilizers and by growing more legumes. 
Live stock, because the number kept is small, does not have a 
marked effect on yields in this area. On the farms that keep the 
most stock, however, there is a tendency to devote the poorer grades 
of land to pasture and to plant more cowpeas. This leaves a better 
grade of land for crops, which, with the improvement from the 
pasture and cowpeas upon the poorer land and the manure from the 
live stock for the crop, gives better yields than are made on the 
average farms. 
The variety of seed planted also has a direct bearing on yields. 
Farmers who planted Cook and Cleveland Big Boll cotton (see 
Table XI) obtained the best yields. Marlboro Prolific was the best- 
yielding variety of corn. It is noticeable that the farmers who take 
an interest in the kind of seed they plant are the ones who make 
the best crops. Farmers whose interest in the seed is so little they 
do not know the variety they plant are the ones who have the poorest 
yields. 
Table XI. — Varieties and yields of cotton and corn. 
Variety ot cotton. 
Number 
of farms. 
f'ook 
Cleveland Big Boll. 
ledfled 
< bristopher 
Yield ol 
net lint 
per acre. 
Pounds. 
248 
242 
230 
Variety oi corn. 
Marlboro Prolific. 
Not specified 
Number Yield per 
of farms. acre. 
36 
Bvshels. 
19.9 
16.3 
