32 
BULLETIN 659, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 
yields from 1903 to 1914. It is seen that this line has a marked 
downward tendency, indicating that the average yield per acre has 
gradually decreased during this period. 
The variations from year to year in the yield per acre are accounted 
for by climatic or other conditions, over which the farmers have little 
control. However, the average downward tendency of the yield per 
acre is a matter of vital concern to the farmers, and also is a matter 
over which the farmers can have some influence. It appears certain 
that the system of farming followed here at present is not self- 
sustaining. Eventually farmers must either change to some other 
system, or must so change their practices with the present one as to 
rebuild the soil. 
The forces that determine what system of farming is best in a 
given locality are so complex that no human agency can tell what 
system is best until the matter is worked out in practice. In Brooks 
County, Ga.. where 
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the single crop cotton 
system held sway un- 
til yields were re- 
duced to a point that 
made a change neces- 
sary, hogs and pea- 
nuts became the farm- 
er's main dependence. 
But peanuts are not 
so well adapted to the 
soils of Ellis County. 
Tex., and raising hogs 
for market, as dis- 
tinguished from rais- 
ing the home supply, 
requires careful management on soils that become very muddy in wet 
weather. It is unwise to try to suggest new systems of farming for 
this region until a careful study has been made of the system pre- 
vailing in other similar regions where this problem has beeu worked 
out. if such regions can be found. Such a study is contemplated. 
The experience of farmers in Marlboro County. S. C. seems to 
offer a suggestion. That county loug since reached the point where 
continuous cotton culture with no attention to soil fertility made a 
change necessary. To-day it has soil of wonderful yielding power. 
Its yield per acre of cotton is remarkably high. In this locality it 
was long ago learned that the application of commercial fertilizers 
would greatly stimulate the growth of cotton. The use of a little 
manure or vegetable refuse of almost any kind aided materially. It 
Fig. 9. — Variation in yield per acre of cotton from 1903 to 
1914. Ellis County, Tex. (Data furnished by U S. 
Bureau of Crop Estimates.) 
