THE FAEMER's income. 



well, but on the small farm the interest on the investment is not 

 sufficient to permit a high standard of living, so that the farmer 

 must have some labor income in addition. The average income of 

 the farmer could be increased by making the farms larger and thus 

 reducing the number of individuals engaged ia agricultural produc- 

 tion. This could easily be done without decreasing production by 

 better farm organization and the utihzation of larger machinery and 

 more power on the farm. 



An average in itself has little meaning. In the present case, how- 

 ever, it is reasonable to infer that at least half of the farm families 

 in this country have incomes smaller than those given in Table I. 

 Individual farmers here and there have incomes larger than this 

 average, but the facts presented in the table indicate that on the 

 whole the income of farmers in this country, even when we include 

 as a part of the income those things consumed on the farm where 

 they are produced, is certainly not more than sufficient to pay 5 

 per cent on the investment and ordinary farm wages for the labor 

 they do, and it is probably considerably less than this. 



[Cir. 132] 



