24 BULLETIN" 659, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Ninety-one percent of the farms have no wheat and 93 per cent have 
no alfalfa. 
The case is somewhat similar with feed stuffs. Cotton growers 
too often depend on buying them, when they could produce them on 
the farm with little extra expense. Even where cotton is the only 
farm product that can be relied on as a source of income, it is un- 
doubtedly good practice to produce the food and feed required on 
the farm as largely as possible, and the best farmers do so. 
Because of the time required to obtain from the farmer the details 
necessary to an analysis of the farm business, it is not practicable 
at the same time to get a financial account of what the farm furnishes 
toward the family living. The latter is a separate study. No such 
study has been made in Ellis County, though one has been made in 
McLennon County, where conditions are somewhat similar. In this 
region, as in all regions devoted to a one-sided system of farming, 
farmers often neglect the opportunity they have to produce an 
abundance and variety of food. As a result the family lives largely 
on materials bought at the stores. This is one of the evils of a one- 
crop system. Even if it were true, as many cotton farmers claim, 
that they can raise cotton and sell it and buy fruits, vegetables, and 
poultry and dairy products cheaper than they could raise them, the 
fact remains that unless they are produced on the farm the family 
will not have them in abundance, and what they do buy is not of as 
high quality as that produced at home. 
Table X. — Percentage of total receipts from different sources in 101^. (115 
farms, Ellis County, Tex.) 
Per cent. 
Cotton __. 86 
Corn ^ 2 
Other crops 3.4 
Stock . 5. 6 
Increase feed and supplies 1. 3 
Miscellaneous 1. 6 
Table X shows the sources from which the income is derived. 
With 86 per cent of the receipts from cotton, it is clear that cotton is 
the all-important enterprise of every farm. 
Alfalfa was found on 8 of the farms studied. The yield of cotton 
per acre on these farms was greater than on farms where no 
alfalfa was produced. Indications seem to point to the future pro- 
duction of larger areas of alfalfa, not to displace cotton, but to in- 
crease the yield of cotton and also the net returns of the farms. 
There is no doubt that the production of alfalfa will greatly improve 
the fertility of the soil. It is unfortunate that there are not more 
farms in the alfalfa groups in order that more definite conclusions 
might be drawn. 
