46 BULLETIX 659, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
COST OF PRODUCTION. 
Before discussing in detail the cost of production of the various 
crops found on the farms of Ellis County, a brief discussion is here 
given of the methods used in the determination. The items of cost 
considered were as follows: Rent x>i land: man labor, consisting of 
hired labor, family labor, and the operator's own labor; horse labor; 
equipment or machinery cost; interest on cash required to operate 
the farm; seed cost; ginning cost for cotton; and special costs on 
certain enterprises. 
The rent of land was ascertained from each farmer. All cotton 
land when rented was worked on the share basis, one-fourth of the 
crop generally being the landlord's portion. All other crops, such 
as corn. oats, sorghum, and milo maize, when raised on rented land 
were produced either on the share basis or cash-rent basis. More 
often these crops, when raised by tenants, were produced on land 
for which cash rent was paid: for those crops where the landlord 
received a share as rent his portion was generally one-third of the 
crop produced. Since nearly -±0 per cent of the land covered by the 
survey was worked by tenants, there was no difficulty in determining 
the cash rent per acre on any of the farms. 
Since the rent per acre was determined on the basis of the amount 
that the landlords received as rent, this item covers a number of 
minor expenses, such as taxes, insurance of farm buildings, repairs 
of same, and building depreciation. The rent is determined, to a 
certain extent, by the yielding power of the land. 
In arriving at the cost of man labor the three component parts 
were determined separately. The cost of hired labor, consisting of 
month hands, day hands, and contract work, such as cotton chopping, 
picking, etc., was obtained directly from each farmer. If any mem- 
bers of the family did field work, the value of this was obtained and 
considered as a cost. The value of the operator's own labor was 
obtained on the basis of what it would cost him to hire another 
do his work of management and manual labor equally as well as 
himself could do it. It is appreciated that this is an unsatisfactory 
figure, but tabulations have shown that on the average the farmers 
were consistent in their estimates of this figure. \Vhen rations were 
furnished laborers, or where members of the family did farm work, 
the cost of food bought or furnished this labor was included in the 
man-labor cost. 
The cost of horse (or mule) labor was subdivided into the follow- 
ing items: Depreciation; interest on investment in work stock at the 
beginning of the year: feed cost: shoeing and veterinary charges; 
and cost of work stock hired by the month or year. Where a crew, 
consisting of men, team and machinery, was employed for a specific 
