BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY, 331 



Farm plans. — In connection with the district work ^Ir. J. W. 

 Froley, Assistant, is charged with the working out of details of 

 farm plans submitted by the officers in charge of that work. During 

 the year 64 such plans have been drawn and many of them put into 

 operation. The farms upon which these plans are carried out become 

 demonstrations in improved systems of farm management and cen- 

 ters of interest for their respective localities. 



Farm organization and operation. — The work on farm organiza- 

 tion and operation has been somewhat interrupted during the year 

 by the resignation of Mr. W. A. Peck, under whose direction these 

 investigations had been conducted for four years. Mr. E. H. Thom- 

 son has been placed in charge of this work. During the year detailed 

 daily reports have been received of every hour of labor performed 

 on nearly one hundred farms, and records have been made that enable 

 the office to determine the distribution of this labor between various 

 enterprises on each of these farms. This work has been conducted 

 mostly in cooperation with state experiment stations, especially 

 with those of Ohio and Wisconsin. Arrangements have now been 

 completed for similar work in cooperation with the agricultural de- 

 partment of the University of Missouri. In this work data are being 

 collected from many States regarding the cost of every phase of 

 farm management. These data will later become the basis of de- 

 termining the profits of various farm enterprises under widely differ- 

 ent conditions. In some instances the annual summaries of such 

 data which the office has been able to furnish to the owners of the 

 farms reporting liave resulted in important changes in the system 

 of management whereby the profits have been largely increased. 



During the past year a careful farm survey has been made in four 

 townships in southern New Hampshire. This survey has dealt 

 mainly with the profits from each of the farms included in the sur- 

 vey. It involves a study of the relation of profit in farming to the 

 type of farming followed, the educational advantages which the 

 farmer has enjoyed, and other considerations. The results obtained 

 in this survey are of unusual value, and will be presented in a bulletin 

 wdiich is now in press. This work will be considerably extended dur- 

 ing the ensuing year. 



Farm equipment. — Investigations of farm equipment conducted 

 by Mr. L. W. Ellis, Assistant, during the past three years, have been 

 continued; but Mr. Ellis resigned February 28, 1910, and Mr. H. H. 

 Mowry was appointed to succeed him. Recent interest in farming 

 on the part of city men has made data concerning the character and 

 cost of farm equipment a necessity. Men of this class who are going 

 to the farm in large numbers are demanding information concerning 

 the cost of beginning business and the nature of the equipment neces- 

 sary. Special attention has been given during the past year to the 

 character and cost of the necessary equipment on small farms of 

 types suited to the beginner with small capital. During the past 

 four months 80 such farms have been studied in minute detail. This 

 work is to be extended as rapidly as conditions will permit. 



Prickly-pear investigations. — Work in the culture of prickly 

 pears has been continued during the past year under the direction 

 of Dr. David Griffiths, Agriculturist, as outlined in the last report. 



