AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



A concrete example is worth more than ab- 

 stract averages in giving a correct notion of the 

 amount of capital a tenant farmer must have in 

 order to carry on agriculture successfully. 



On March ist, 1904, an invoice was made by 

 disinterested men, of all the live stock, grain, and 

 fodder on a farm in southeastern Iowa. The 

 farm consisted of six hundred acres of land, two 

 hundred and ninety-five acres of which were 

 plowed or mowed land at the time. The re- 

 mainder was in pasture, though some of the land 

 then in pasture had been and will again be under 

 the plow, while parts of the pasture land are 

 densely covered with trees. On the whole the 

 degree of intensity of culture is about the aver- 

 age for that part of the country, which is cer- 

 tainly far from being farmed intensively. The 

 land had been farmed "on shares," one party fur- 

 nishing the land and half of the live stock and 

 bearing half of the expense when live stock or 

 feed was purchased. The other party furnished 

 half of the live stock, all of the tools and machin- 

 ery, and the labor needed to operate the farm. 

 When the invoice was made for the purpose of 

 bringing this partnership to a close, the live stock, 

 grain, hay, etc., were valued at about five thou- 

 sand dollars. This is eight and one-third dollars 

 per acre. The live stock was of the ordinary 

 breeds commonly kept in that part of the country. 

 The farmer estimated the value of the tools and 



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