The War and the Farmer 



The gross farm income increased over 100 per cent 

 after the war opened. The significance of this to the 

 individual farmer is portrayed in Chart 9. In the three 

 oldest of the middle western states Ohio, Indiana 

 and Illinois the average gross value of the thir- 

 teen principal crops per farm in 1917 was $2,288, as 

 compared with $964 on the average for the pre-war 

 period of 1911 to 1915 an increase of 137 per cent. 

 It is estimated that farm costs increased 50 per cent 

 during the war. At this estimate the $964 received in 

 the pre-war period had merely covered the cost of 

 production; one-half of this amount or $482, would 

 represent the increase in cost of production in 1917. 

 Subtracting this from the total increase of $1,324, 

 it leaves an increased net profit of $842, an amount 

 comparable with the gross earnings on a pre-war 

 basis. In Georgia, North Carolina and South Caro- 

 lina the increase per farm was less, while the per- 

 centage increase, 129 per cent, was about the same. 

 But in this section the average amount of improved 

 land per farm was but 37 acres, whereas in the three 

 middle western states it was 86 acres. 



The true increase in farm prosperity was therefore 

 not very different in the two sections. In the typical 

 Middle Atlantic states the average increase was some- 

 what less. 



The average output per farm is significant in com- 

 paring the condition of farming during the war with 

 that of the pre-war period. Obviously this aver- 

 age is not an index of the buying power of the efficient 

 farmer in either period. In averaging farmers to- 

 gether, as in averaging lawyers or doctors, so many 

 are included who have made failures that the average 

 is far below that for the successful. The efficient 



[25] 



