UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTI 
BULLETIN No. 961 
Contribution from 
the Office of Farm Management and Farm Economics 
H. C. TAYLOR, Chief J&p'&J'U 
Washington, D. C. ▼ August 13, 1921 
STANDARDS OF LABOR ON THE HILL FARMS OF 
LOUISIANA. 
By 
M. Bruce Oates, Assistant Agriculturist, and L. A. Reynoldson, Junior 
Farm Economist . 
(Section of Farm Organization, F. W. Peek in charge.) 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Introduction 1 
Scope and method of study 2 
Summary of results 2 
Significance of crevv' duty and labor requirements 4 
Soil preparation 5 
Operations on individual crops 10 
INTRODUCTION. 
This bulletin is a statement of the prevailing standards of labor for 
crews of various sizes at field and crop work and the labor require- 
ments of crops per acre for the hill sections of Louisiana. Though 
the data presented are strictly applicable only to that locality, it is 
believed that they will apply in large measure to the upland portions 
of the other Cotton Belt States where types of farming, implements 
used, kind of labor employed, and character of soil are similar. . In 
making this statement the intention is not to convey the idea that 
conditions in all of these localities are uniform, but that such differ- 
ences as there are in soil, topography, kind of labor used, weeds, etc., 
are not sufficient to affect materially the amount of work done per 
day or the labor requirements per acre. The climate throughout 
these States varies so little that the season and time available for a 
given operation are about the same throughout the region, except 
that the season is a little earlier or a little later as one goes south or 
north of the area surveyed. 
It is believed that the information in the following pages will be of 
great help in replanning a farm or in readjusting crop acreages so as 
to utilize better both man and animal labor, or in determining the 
kind and sizes of new machinery to purchase. It should also be an 
18308°— 21— Bull. %1 1 
