FORTY-FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT. 147 



able, it seems that the majority of the farmers around Fremont have 

 good diversity of farm enterprise. A great variety of fruit, crop, and 

 animal sources of income prevail. No combination of these is found 

 that is decidedly more profitable than other combinations for the two 

 years covered in the work. As a general proposition two to four major 

 sources of income with some minor sources make a better combination 

 than any other arrangements. Individual instances are often cited 

 that seem to disprove this statement but a careful analysis of these 

 cases almost always discovers some special condition which can not be 

 duplicated by any large number of farmers. The specialty farmers who 

 can cater to some fancy trade usually make good incomes but the 

 specialty farmers who produce any one of the ordinary farm crops or 

 farm animal or animal products exclusively without special conditions 

 and sells them at ordinary market prices very seldom make a good labor 

 income. Experienced farmers often make mistakes of this kind. An 

 eighty-acre farmer doing general purpose farming oftentimes finds that 

 a market for milk has opened up in his region; he cuts down his acre- 

 age of cash crops, stocks up with six or eight cows and finds that he 

 is doing better than before. If he continues along with that new ar- 

 rangement he does very fine but oftentimes he farther enlarges his 

 herd of cows and eliminates all his cash crops thinking he will thus 

 increase his income and maintain a higher degree of fertility on his 

 farm than formerly. Tliis may result satisfactorily if he has a special 

 outlet for his dairy products but if he has only ordinary market prices 

 he makes a very serious mistake with the result that he works longer 

 hours than formerly and gets a smaller wage per hour than ever be- 

 fore. Dairj'ing is good business on a farm which has good diversity 

 but is mighty poor business on a farm which has no other sources of 

 income and receives only ordinary market prices for dairy products. 

 One source of income involves a big risk and very seldom produces a 

 good income for tlie farmer except as a result of special conditions. 

 I have here shown a number of charts which we are using in our 

 Farm Management Demonstrations in Newaygo county. This data has 

 been prepared in an effort to show these farmers that certain efficiency 

 factors materially affect their income. In the following chart I will 

 show how we analyze a farmer's business and show him how these 

 factors, size and quality, affect his own business. 



