A FARM MANAGEMENT SURVEY IK BROOKS CO., GA. 
27 
labor efficiently employed. From. 30 to 35 acres per mule would 
seem to be the proper acreage under the conditions here found. The 
soil on these farms is a light sand and is easily cultivated. On a 
heavier type of soil, no doubt, fewer acres per mule would be found 
to be more desirable. 
RELATION OF AMOUNT OF TILLAGE TO COSTS AND PROFITS. 
Much has been said regarding the benefits arising from deep plow- 
ing, thorough and frequent preparation of the seedbed, and fre- 
quency of cultivation, much of the advice on these points making 
little or no distinction between types of soil. In gathering data for 
the purpose of calculating costs of production in this study, the 
amount of man and mule labor involved in each operation of each 
crop was ascertained for each farm. It is thus possible to study the 
profitableness of different amounts of tillage. 
Using the amount of mule labor expended per acre as probably 
the best available measure of the degree of tillage, the effect of that 
factor upon the profits and costs of cotton have been tabulated and 
the results shown in Table XI. The cotton crop was used because it 
was the most important crop grown here and because for it the 
largest number of records are available. The figures upon which 
this table is based include all of the mule labor spent on the cotton up 
to and including the planting of the crop. 
Table XI. — Relation of amount of mule labor expended in preparatory tillage 
of cotton to costs and profits (Brooks County, Oa.). 
Days mule labor per acre, preparatory tillage. 
Number 
of 
records. 
Average 
mule 
days 
prepara- 
tory 
tillage. 
Yield 
of net 
lint. 
Profit 
per acre. 
Cost of 
net lint 
per 
pound. 
15 
44 
51 
33 
1.14 
1.77 
2.22 
2.89 
Pounds. 
292 
293 
298 
311 
$8.47 
8.37 
6.53 
6.22 
$0. 085 
1.5 to 1.9 
.087 
2.0 to 2.4.... 
.093 
2.5 and over 
.096 
All records 
143 
2.12 
299 
7.04 
.091 
It will be seen that the increasing amounts of mule labor were ac- 
companied by slowly increasing yields, but that these yields were not 
sufficient to offset the increased cost. Thus the cost per pound of 
net lint cotton increased regularly from 8.5 cents for the group that 
expended less than 1.5 days of mule labor per acre, to 9.6 cents for 
those on which more than 2.5 days were expended. These increased 
costs cut the profits per acre from $8.47 to $6.22. 
The results shown in this table would indicate that the extra labor 
cost involved in the deeper and more prolonged preparatory tillage 
