142 



Missouri Agricultural Report. 



duction has increased. One man is often farming as much land as two 

 men farmed a few years ago and doing it better. 



Farm machinery and size of farm. — The value of farm machinery 

 increases rapidly with the size of the farm. This value is only $341 

 for farms of 61-100 acres. These valuations are probably not half what 

 new machinery would cost. Any one who has ever made a list of the 

 necessary farm machinery will see at once how inadequately these small 

 farms are equipped. Yet their machinery costs nearly twice as much 

 per acre as that on the larger farms that have nearly three times as 

 much machinery. Machinery can be used more effectively on large 

 farms. One mower, one hay rake, one tedder, one hay loader, one corn 

 harvester, one grain harvester, one grain drill, one manure spreader, one 

 potato digger, one potato planter, can do their work on a 250-acre farm 

 as readily as on a small farm. Few of the small farms have half of 

 these tools. If a small farm does have nearly all the list, it cannot use 



O 4-0 80 /So /60 



3/ze of /rirm - A ere s 



soo 



9-^0 



280 



Fig. 1— The larger farms pay much better tlian the smaller ones. 



them enough to pay for the investment. The more efficient and numer- 

 ous machines become, the larger our farms should be. It is interesting 

 to notice how many of the tools are of very recent development. Al- 

 most half of the value of farm machinery on a well-equipped farm is 

 invested in machinery that has been perfected in the last few years. 



