FAMILY SIZE FARM 47 



as compared with $9.00 worth on farms of 160 acres and over. 

 Thus on small farms the expense of operation is much greater 

 per unit of product than on large farms of similar type. The 

 larger the farm the larger the total income, but the per cent of 

 profits is independent of the magnitude of the business. A Ne- 

 braska farm management survey reached the conclusion that a 

 "family size farm" pays best (Fig. 7). This is a farm which fur- 

 nishes work for the younger members of the family and varies in 

 size from two hundred to two hundred and fifty acres in eastern 

 Nebraska. A farm management survey in Missouri, on the "Size 

 of Farm Business," also finds that large farms yield more profits 



FIG. 7. A family size farm, 200 acres. 



than small farms (Figs. 8 and 9). On the large farm, 77.2 acres 

 of crops per man are produced as compared with 15.9 on a small 

 farm. The horse on a large farm cares for 21.2 crop acres, as 

 compared with 7.3 acres on the small farm. Numerous other 

 "surveys" in New York State and other states point to similar 

 conclusions. In the Weekly News Letter of the Department of 

 Agriculture for March 15, 1916, we find 'this statement, "Recent 

 farm-management surveys indicate that the farmer with but little 

 capital can, as a rule, make a better living by renting and operating 

 a comparatively large farm than by putting his money into a 

 small farm w r hich he can buy outright." 



Whether this statement be accepted for the whole truth or 

 not (and it likely is not), it wisely stresses the factor of the purely 

 commercial or economic aspect of a farm enterprise. 



