The weekly soliphone., 1917-08-30
A FARM SURVEY in
EASTERN ARKANSAS
Mr.. McNair Gives Some of Econom
ic Statistics Com
piled.
(By A. d. McNair, Office Of Farm
Management)


ManagementD
Several articles have already been
published concerning an economic
farm survey at Jacksonville in Pu-
laski county, but that was only the
first Of several surveys made. In
eastern Arkansas the writer, assist
ed by P. f. Newell of Mariana
and David Thibault Of Helena, gath
cred the economic facts pertaining
To last years business on a group
Of so farms lying principally be-
tween Marianne in Lee county and
MARVEL in Phillips county. This
region lies just west of Crowley
Ridge, and is practically level
plain, with q silt loan soil Of good
quality. 1t is a wooded region, but
farms have been in cultivation many
years, though few patches of new
land are visible here and there
1t is not a region of large planta-
tions, but of small and medium
sized farms, a fe wof which rise to
the magnitude of small plantations.
Negro farmers are quite numerous
in this region, among whom fair
percentage are land owners. Out of
the so farms studied in these coun-
ties, 20 of them were operated by
negroes and 80 by white people.
The average size of these so farms
was 1915 acres, of which rs acres
were devoted to crops and most OF
the balance was in woods. Three
fourths of the entire farm area was,
therefore, planted in crops, which
is a higher percentage than is US
ually found in this state. 1t took
three families and four and three
quarter mules to farm the average
farm, which means that there were
about two share troopers per farm.
Cotton is the main crop of this
region, occupying about 81 acres
out of every hundred acres of crops.
Corn occupied 80 acres, and a varie-
ty of crops, of which peas are the
most prominent, grew on the re-
naming IA acres out of each 100
acres. Farmers grew most OF their
feedstuffs in this region, and mad
cotton and cotton seed as their
money crop, but there was also
little income from live stock, from
crops other than cotton, and from
miscellaneous cources, so that the
cotton receipts constituted about
three-fourths of the total receipts.
YIELD OF CROPS.
The yield of cotton on these 80
farms averaged 312 pounds of lint
per acre. which was larger than a
normal yield, and which helped
greatly in making money for these
men. The yield Of corn averaged 20
bushels per acre, which is consider
ably above the state average.
The production per family IS
however, better measure of success
or failure than the yield per acre
and in this respect the figures are
worth considering. The production
of cotton per family was eight and
one-half bales and under the head OF
families are included the families
of both operators and share crop
pers. The production of corn per
family was 22S bushels, which was
enough in most cases for all home
needs
Planters often express the pro-
duction Of cotton as so many bales
per mule, and this, in the region
under consideration, was nearly tVe
bales The production of corn per
mule amounted to 127 bushels.
RECEIPTS, EXPENSES, ETC.
The gross receipts per farm, IN
Guiding the value Of the share crop
pers' cotton, was 1878, and when
all farm expenses were paid, IN