18 BULLETIN 1269, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
The salary of the plantation manager has important relation, not 
so much to the type of organization, as to the plantation's financial 
success. Qualities essential to successful management, in addition 
in the policy and foresight of the owner, are an understanding of 
and experience in crop production, judgment, and discretion in 
balancing expenditures against expected returns, ability to handle 
labor, and a genuine interest in the success of the undertaking. 
Interest in the success of the undertaking is assumed if the manage- 
ment is in the hands of the owner, but. if delegated to a manager, 
special means may be adopted to obtain it. The planter adopts one 
of several means. He may resort to fixed compensation sufficient 
to attract the best talent, he may allow the manager financial invest- 
ment in the business, or he may fix the compensation in terms of net 
profits. The first, which is most common, has the disadvantage of 
either being excessive certain years or affording too little remunera- 
tion to hold the better class. The second is impracticable except 
in the case of company or corporation farms. The last method 
named is practicable and where given a trial, has worked success- 
fully. Some details of the arrangement are shown in the following 
instances: 
A plantation owner in an Arkansas county had been operating 
his plantation through salaried managers. In 1916 he made a con- 
tract on a commission basis with a mature man of business and 
farming ability, as results have since proved. The contract was of 
indefinite duration and the manager was to receive one-third of the 
net profits. For five consecutive years this manager cleared for the 
plantation an average net profit of about $20,000 per year, including 
$17,000 for 1920, on an investment of about $100,000, as against a 
much less return in previous years, and the plantation as a whole is 
said to be in better condition than when the contract began. The 
danger of exploiting the land to obtain large temporary returns may 
be obviated in most cases by proper agreement. 
In the Alabama Black Belt, a certain manager receives $1,200 a 
year guaranteed salary, and the usual perquisites such as house, 
garden, and milk cows. All expenses are charged against the farm 
business, except permanent improvements, and $1 per acre as rent 
is allowed to the landlord. All cash advanced to the business for 
operation by the owner draws 6 per cent interest. The net profit is 
snared equally between the landlord and manager. If the contract 
proves satisfactory, it becomes permanent after the first year and 
may be terminated if either party gives the other notice three months 
in advance. At the expiration of the contract, after 6 per cent 
interest per annum on equipment less depreciation is deducted, 
the manager receives the difference between the amount of inventory 
of the equipment at the beginning and at the end of the period of 
operation. 
A common practice on some plantations for inducing effort and 
efficiency on the pari of the farm manager is the adoption of tests of 
efficiency as the basis of special reward. Presents or bonuses are 
given, measured by the net profit on the operating unit as a whole. 
This plan tends to reduce liio costs of operation and to encourage 
production, and is particularly effective in an organization with 
several competing units. Secondary bonuses are allowed upon the 
basis of the average quantity of staple crop production per acre, with 
