28 A STUDY OF FARM EQUIPMENT IN OHIO. 



Table VIII gives by enterprises the percentages of total invest- 

 ment for 25 farms, together with the mean of the percentages for the 

 individual farms and the average percentages for the 2 1 farms con- 

 sidered as a unit. ]\Iiscellaneous enterprises are grouped under the 

 column so headed. These include maple sugar, sirup, etc., on farms 

 1, 2, 5, 6, and 17; orchards on farms 3, 21, 22, and 23; sugar beets 

 on farm 10; tobacco on farm 24; and market garden on farm 25. 

 On farm 4, 8.65 per cent is invested in the maple-sugar enterprise and 

 1.68 per cent in orchard; on farm 18, 0.28 per cent is in sugar and 0.97 

 per cent in orchard. Bees, also included with miscellaneous enter- 

 prises, average 0.03 per cent of the total, amounting to less than 

 0.4 per cent on any farm represented in Table VIII. On farm 29, 

 however, this enterprise represents 2.51 per cent of the total invest- 

 ment. 



The relative importance of the various Hve-stock enterprises can 

 readily be ascertained from Tables VII and VIII. On liigh-priced 

 land the "All crop" enterprise naturally bears a higher proportion 

 of the total investment. The investment in special crop machinery 

 is relatively small. The low figures (0.15, 0.10, 0.07, and 0.21) for 

 corn machinery among the liill farms (20 to 23, inclusive) are to be 

 noted. 



The distribution of capital for each farm is worthy of consideration 

 by itself. It is not easy to generalize in tliis connection, all the 

 factors discussed up to this point governing the selection of equip- 

 ment. The various tables, and especially Table VIII, will show the 

 difficulty of studymg the farm instead of the enterprise as a unit. 

 Farms 1, 2, 6, 9, 21, and 23 might be classed as dairy farms, yet in 

 the distribution of investment among the various enterprises they 

 are far from uniform. With the exception of these and farms 20 and 

 25, the farms studied can best be classed as "General," and among 

 these occur variations in the distribution investment to the under- 

 standing of which an analysis of the farm as a combination of 

 enterprises is essential. 



EQUIPMENT OF THE AVERAGE FARM. 



In the foregoing pages the distribution of capital at the time of 

 inventory has been discussed. The next phase of the study, and 

 really the first in logical order, is the enumeration of the items that 

 make up the equipment of an average farm . The average equipment 

 of the 21 farms wliich have been studied will, of course, serve only 

 for farms having approximately the same conditions as tliis aver- 

 age farm. The various classes of equipment will be dealt with 



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