FARM MANAGEMENT STUDY OF COTTON FARMS. 
17 
cropper cotton is approximately 1.8 cents per pound, while the mar- 
gin of profit to the cropper is 4.4 cents per pound. 
Two reasons may be cited why owners are willing to stand a 
higher cost for their share of the cotton raised by cropper labor than 
the cropper's share costs the cropper. The owners have the alterna- 
tive of raising cotton with wage or hired labor, or they may emplo}^ 
croppers and allow them half the crop produced as wages. In the 
first case, the owner must take all the risks in producing the crop, 
whereas, in the second case, the cropper shares the risk equally with 
the owner. Further, under the wage system the owner must provide 
all the man labor and oversee it. whereas with croppers the latter 
must furnish and oversee the hired labor. 
In Table VI, 79 of these farms are grouped according to the capital 
of the operator. It is a striking fact that every operator with less 
than $4,000 capital is a tenant, while every one with- more than this 
is an owner: and this in spite of the fact that tenants with an aver- 
age capital .of only $1,200 make nearly as much as owners with 
SI 0.000. while tenants with $2,500 invested make distinctly greater 
incomes than owners with an investment four times as great. These 
figures indicate clearly that an operator with small capital can make 
a much better income as a tenant than as an owner. Similar results 
have been found in all farm-management surveys, made in all parts 
of the United States. 
Table VI. — Relation of capital invested by farm operator to ineonie of the 
operators of owner and tenant farms (79 farms, Ellis County, Tex., in 1914). 
Owner farms. 
Tenant farms. 
Operator's capital. 
Num- 
ber 
rec- 
ords. 
Crop 
acres. 
Average 
capital. 
Farm 
in- 
come. 
Num- 
ber 
rec- 
ords. 
Crop 
acres. 
Average capital. 
Farm 
Tenant 
Landlord, oper- 
ator. 
mcome 
of 
tenant. 
$516 to $1.966 
28 
14 
91 
131 
$13,453 
20, 798 
SI, 212 
2,375 
$751 
$2,015 to $3.237 
1,157 
$4,709 to S13. 665 
15 
17 
5 
60 
89 
141 
$10, 112 
17,088 
31,100 

SS50 
1,398 
2,278 
$14,203 to S19.54S 
$21,106 to $41.360 
' 

1 
From the results shown in Table VI, it would seem probable 
that the groups of owners having an average capital of about $10,000 
could do much better financially if they would rent large farms and 
operate as tenants. But not a single operator with $4,000 or more 
capital is doing this. Since, theoretically at least, they could make 
much larger incomes as tenants, there must be very important reasons 
why they choose to operate as owners of smaller farms. Generally 
speaking, wherever surveys of this kind have been made in this coun- 
41617°— IS— Bull. 659 3 
