THE COST OF PRODUCING COTTON. DS 
TasLtE XVIII.—Distribute fertilizer 
Reporting. Acres per farm. Crew. Hours per acre. 
Be fe . Pounds) ; 
ate and county. er 
. Percent Pp 
Num- In Cov- acre 
oftotal - | Man. | Mule. | Man. | Mule. 
ber. records.| Cotton. | ered. | | 
Georgia: | | 
Laurens County.......-- 83 98 | 46.96) 46.84 294 | 1 Pe 1.0 1.9 Wea 
Greene County.......... 77 99 | 53.69 | 53.69 260 | eae 1.0 2.0 1.9 
Sumter County........-.. 80 100 52. 36 52. 29 286 | ats 1.0 1.9 1.8 
Alabama: | | 
Tallapoosa County...... 81 91 13.62} 13.59 205 | 1.0 | 1.0 2.0 2.0 
Marshall] County......... 90 100 13. 88 13. 88 333 1.0 | 1.0 1.8 1.8 
MaleCountyesss-s55- a 90 100 13. 63 | 13. 56 250 1.0 1.0 2.0 2.0 
South Carolina: | 
Anderson County....--.- 88 99 32. 20 32. 20 408 | 12 | 1.0 2.4 2.0 
Barnwell] County....-.-- 91 100 | 43.25 | 43.25 555 | 159) ial 2m 1.9 
Texas: | 
Rusk County-.......---- 68 91 34. 88 30. 47 159 1.0 leat 125 HES) 
1 This table includes records where fertilizing was done by hand, except as regards normal time. 
Mix fertalizer—Some hand labor was used in mixing fertilizer 
on the farms prior to distribution in the field. Occasionally two or 
more grades may be purchased separately and before distributing 
to the cotton rows the two or more kinds may be mixed. Compara- 
tively speaking, only a few growers did any hand mixing of fertilizer. 
The applicairon of feritlizer.—Ordinarily the distribution of fertilizer 
on cotton land follows some of the primary work of seed bed prepara- 
tion. If the successive steps in getting land ready for cotton are to 
be treated in logical order, then breaking or plowing should precede 
a discussion of labor used in putting on fertilizer. However, in 
dealing with the requirements of the latter work it seemed desirable 
to bring together all of the items that relate directly to the utilization 
of commercial fertilizer. Eight:-nine per cent of the men interviewed 
gave estimates on fertilizer distribution. (See Table XVIIT.) 
On a majority of the farms the fertilizer was put on with a l-row 
distributor operated by a crew of one man and one mule. There were 
a few cases In which the man running the distributor had some assist- 
ance for part time. About two hours per acre of man labor were 
spent in distributing fertilizer in a majority of the districts. This 
means that about 5 acres of cotton land would be treated with fer- 
tilizer in a 10-hour day. The period of application varied from March, 
20 to May 10. Two districts, i. e., Tallapoosa County, Ala., and 
Anderson County, S. C., included some farms where the fertilizer was 
put on by hand. The normal man labor requirement for 10 farms 
where fertilizer was put on by hand was 2.9 hours per acre. This 
work was done with a minimum of 2.2 hours per acre in a few dis- 
tricts. (See fig. 6.) 
Side dress.—This term refers to fertilizer applied at the side of the 
row after the cotton plants had attained some size. The chief center 
