LAND TENURE AND PLANTATION ORGANIZATION 
17 
overseers, including perquisites, was $1,550 and $1,000, respectively. 
The cost of general management in addition, where the owner oper- 
ates entirely through salaried managers or in the case of company or 
corporation farms, is much higher. For example, the average salary 
of 27 general managers was $3,550. However, there are cases where 
general managers or agents receive only nominal pay for directing 
the business as a whole. The salaries of plantation employees con- 
nected with management were probably higher in 1920 than at any 
other time, and it is known that some have since been reduced. 
On 29 plantations with an average of 586 improved acres, the 
average salary was $1,841. The average on 25 plantations with 
1,200 acres or more was $2,222. These figures do not show a par- 
ticularly close relationship between managers' salaries and size of 
plantations. (See Table 2, Appendix F.) 
As shown in Table 5, on 87 owner-operated plantations in 1920, the 
average expenditure per cultivated acre, not allowing anything for the 
owner's time, was $2, and on 38 plantations directed by general 
managers, $2.96. The expenditure on manager-operated plantations, 
excluding salaries of general managers, was $1.89 per acre. The 
difference in expenditures for management and supervision on the 
several kinds of plantations (according to major crops grown) was as 
follows: Cotton, $1.56; sugar cane, $3.41; rice, $1.61; and "shade" 
tobacco, $9.85. 
Table 5. — Cost of management and supervision per acre 
1. On Owner-Operated Plantations 
Kind 
Farms 
Cost for managers, assistant 
managers, and overseers 
Improved 
acres 
Cost per 
Salary 
Perqui- 
sites 
Total 
acre 
Cotton 
69 
18 
$162, 220 
79, 780 
$54, 300 
13, 050 
$216, 520 
92, 830 
120, 416 
34, 480 
$1. 80 
2.69 
Total or average .. .-...- 
87 
242, 000 
67, 350 
309, 350 
154, 896 
2.00 
II. On Manager-Operated Plantations 
Cotton. -. 
28 
10 
$105, 850 
123, 680 
$19, 350 
19, 850 
$125, 200 
143, 530 
67, 202 
23, 719 
$1 86 
6. 05 
Total or average . .-. . ... _. 
38 
229, 530 
39, 200 
268, 730 
90, 921 
2.96 
The heavy cost of management and supervision has been an im- 
portant factor in bringing about changes in the type of plantation 
organization. Some planters have found themselves obliged to 
reduce the cost of operation, which may be done, in one way, by 
economies in administration. The cost of administration can not 
be reduced permanently, however, without at the same time impair- 
ing efficiency, except b} r raising the standard of efficiency of the 
labor. This is done by resorting to a class of labor which requires 
less supervision. 
94686°— 24f 2 
