STANDARDS OF LABOR. 
11 
meadow hay as a money crop. Sweet potatoes are grown primarily 
for home use, but when there is a surplus it usually is for sale. 
In the following pages each crop is considered separately. Under 
each of the crops crew duty and labor requirements per acre are 
o-iven. Under crew duty, where a sufficient number of reports were 
obtained to give reliable averages, a table is presented for each crop, 
showing the labor requirement per acre for each separate operation 
from the beginning of preparation of the land until the crop is 
marketed. 
COTTON. 
Crew duty at preparation work having been shown, the first opera- 
tion to be considered under each crop is planting. Cotton is nearly 
always planted with a planter, although it is sometimes planted by 
hand. However, all the records at hand for this operation are for 
planter work. (See Table XII.) 
Table XII. — Planting cotton with 1-row planter — one man, one mule. 
Width of 
row. 
Number 
of 
reports. 
Average 
acreage 
per day. 
Acreage reported 
most frequently. 
3 feet 
3$ feet 
4 feet 
12 
96 
74 
5.95 
6.83 
7.50 
6 (11 reports). 
7 (46 reports). 
f 7 (20 reports). 
\ 8 (39 reports). 
In determining crew duty at cultivating operations, such work 
has been divided into three or four classes for each crop. " Scraping " 
is one of these. This is an operation performed on cotton before 
hoeing. This work is done with a one-mule implement which is run 
at a slight depth and throws the weeds and grass away from the 
row into the middles, thus cleaning the side of the bed or row and 
reducing its width preparatory to thinning or hoeing the crop. 
" Barring off" is an operation which applies more particularly to 
corn and sugar cane, although cotton is sometimes barred off. This 
is usually done with a one-mule turning plow, and the purpose is the 
same as that in scraping — that is, to throw weeds and grass to the 
middles and reduce the width of the bed to be hoed. This operation 
is usually followed by hoeing. (See Table XIII.) 
Table XIII. — Scraping cotton — one man, two mules, 2 furrows. 
Width of 
row. 
Number 
of 
reports. 
Average 
acreage 
per day. 
Acreage reported 
most frequently. 
3* feet 
4 feet 
57 
31 
3.34 
3.62 
/3 (22 reports). 
\3£ (22 reports). 
4 (14 reports). 
