Farmers' Week in Agricultural College. 



145 



Apparently the efficiency with which the labor of men, teams and 

 tools can be used is the important factor in making the larger farms pay 

 better. The results on tenant farms also agree with these conclusions. 

 The tenant who furnishes labor finds the larger farms more profitable. 

 The profits of the landlord who furnishes no labor seem to be little af- 

 fected by the size of the farm. 



The same points are shown by studying table 11, for Livingston 

 county. Men, horses and machinery are being much more efficiently 

 used on the larger farms. In spite of the much larger acreage farmed 

 per man and per horse on the larger farms, the crop yields are as good 

 or better. 



TABLE 11. RELATION OF SIZE OF FARM TO OTHER FACTORS. 293 FARMS 

 IN LIVINGSTON COUNTY OPERATED BY OWNERS. 



Size of farm and profits related to distribution of capital. — The 

 percentage distribution of capital is almost the same on each size of 

 farm. The larger farms have a little larger proportion of their money 

 invested in stock. The smaller ones have a little larger proportion in 

 real estate. 



The land is worth more per acre on the smaller farms, but the 

 amount invested in horses, machinery and other items is also more per 

 acre, so that the percentage of the capital in each item is not much 

 different from that on large farms. 



Some persons have thought that farmers would do better if they 

 reduced the size of the farms and increased the equipment. They for- 

 get that the equipment and teams will then not be used up to their ca- 

 pacity. 



On the farms in these counties the per cent invested in equipment 

 is slightly larger on large farms than on small ones. 



When we consider farms of any given size, the best paying ones 

 have practically the same distribution of capital as the less profitable 

 ones. Reducing the size of farm to increase equipment is not the way 



A-IO 



