10 BULLETIN 896, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
taken by operations and the mule or horse labor is therefore recorded 
in hours. The total hours of mule labor in all work of growing cotton 
was multiplied by a rate of 12 cents per hour in order to determine 
the total mule labor costs in money. (See Table VI.) 
TABLE VI.—Summary of labor costs (842 records). 
| 
Nigihce Total Yield Labor cost per acre. Labor 
State and county. of Pee of lint. _——-—-- eee 
records. | ‘cotton. | PeTacre-| Man. | Mule. | Total. | of lint. 
Georgia: Pounds. 
Laurens County -........-.- 85 | 3,968.0 277 $45.09 $7.22 $52.31 $0. 1887 
Greene: County =_- 222 fs 78 | 4,147.5 260 43.39 7.15 50. 54 - 1945 
Sumter County..........<.- 80 |} 4,188.5 244 32.78 7.66 40. 44 1657 
Alabama: 
Tallapoosa County.......---) - 89 | 1,169.0 172 47.41 7.10 54.51 3163 
Marshal} County..........-.. 90 | 1,249.5 227 50. 76 LAZ 57.88 2554 
Dale County 22 ss Se 90 1,226.5 194 40. 96 6.42 47.38 2445 
South Carolina: 
Anderson County........-.-- 89 | 2,865.5 248 43.41 6. 80 50. 21 2026 
Barnwell County .........-- 91 | 3,935.5 268 41.52 7.51 49. 03 1832 
Texas: | 
HilisCounty-—. === 75 | 8,148.0 176 17.51 4.42 21.93 1242 
Rusk Conntys see sao ee 75 | 2,568.0 185 29. 33 5. 89 35. 22 1909 
I 
This rate was arrived at in part from estimates obtained in these 
districts. Consideration was also given to the ratio which exists 
between mule and horse labor rates and man labor rates. Former 
studies made by this office from the standpoint of single enterprises 
have approximately a ratio of 1 to 2. In other words, where a rate 
of 10 cents per hour for mule or horse labor prevailed in a given dis- 
trict, a rate of 20 cents per hour for man labor was current. In this 
study the ratio stands 12 cents per hour for mule labor, in contrast 
with 30 cents per hour for man labor. Table VI contains a sum- 
mary of the man and mule labor costs for the 10 districts included 
in this survey. 
The lowest acre cost for man and mule labor was found in Ellis 
County, Tex., while the highest cost for these two items was reported 
for Marshall County, Ala. The lowest cost for labor, when reduced 
to a unit basis, was shown for Ellis County, Tex. The highest cost 
for the respective groups occurred in Tallapoosa County, Ala. 
MATERIAL COSTS. 
This group of costs takes into consideration cotton seed used in 
planting, farm manure applied to the land, commercial fertilizer 
purchased and applied to cotton, and baskets, sacks, or sheets used 
in harvesting the crop. 
SEED. : 
On many farms the cotton seed used in planting was bought, and 
in such cases 1t was an easy matter to determine the total cost of this 
material. Where the seed was carried over from the preceding crop 
and was used for planting the 1918 cotton acreage, the value was 
based upon the market price of seed at the time of planting. The 
