80 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



commercial fertilizers was taken up with more than 1,200 farmers. 

 It has been shown that o;oo(l crops of potatoes, clover, and corn can 

 be »2;rown on some of the as^riculturally abandoned hill lands of south- 

 ern New York if attention is given to better strains of seed, more 

 thorough tillage, and in many instances the use of lime. In northern 

 Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are extensive areas of compara- 

 tively cheap cut-over hardwood and pine lands, varying greatly 

 in quality and requiring distinctly varying types of farming for the 

 greatest success. These tj^^es are being worked out and vary from 

 dairying and hay farming on the heavier soils to the growang of seed 

 crops, such as clover, hairy vetch, and rye, on the lighter soils. An 

 agricultural survey of Iowa, showing the ty])es of farming prevail- 

 ing in each section of the State and the main agricultural problems 

 needing attention, has been completed. In Missouri a farm-manage- 

 ment organization of 200 farmers from all over the State is attempt- 

 ing to revise the systems of farming there along improved lines 

 suggested by the Department. 



Western farm management. — Nowhere is the study of farm 

 experience of greater importance than in the West, where farming 

 is different from anywhere else in the United States. Each farm is 

 in a sense an experiment station, and the experiences of the indi- 

 vidual farmers are of great importance in formulating wise plans of 

 farming. Satisfactory cropping systems and farm methods have 

 been worked out for parts of western Kansas, Nebraska, and eastern 

 Colorado. The recommendations of the Bureau on tillage practices 

 in the upper Columbia River Basin have been widely adopted. 



Farm organization and operation. — The man and labor hours 

 required to grow farm crops and do all kinds of farm work are being 

 studied in detail on more than 100 farms. The records thus secured 

 show just what it costs to produce a quart of milk, a bushel of corn, 

 a colt of definite age, and the like. These data ^^-ill later become the 

 basis for determining the profits of various farm enterprises under 

 ^videly varying conditions. In New Hampsliire a farm-to-farm sur- 

 vey of four townships was made to study the relation of profits to 

 the type of farming followed. The results bring out strongly the im- 

 portant places occupied by fruit and poultry on the farm. Studies 

 have been made of farm investments and of the details of machinery 

 and tools required in different types of farming. It has been found 

 that usually only about one-half the capital invested in farming is 

 in the land, the remainder being in building equipment, tools, and 

 hve stock. Not infrequently men buying farms put all their money 

 into the land and then struggle for years with inadequate working 

 capital to make a living, whereas if a judicious division of the invest- 

 ment at the outset had been made a much more productive and 

 profitable plant would have resulted. 



