SIZE OF FARMS 



67 



so attractive to both the financier and the sociologist that we shall be surprised 

 if it does not soon take shape in the prospectus of such an enterprise and the 

 issuance of its securities under responsible auspices." 7 



This roseate picture of a good and wise corporation, with the 

 farmer on its payroll, will not be likely to meet with the hearty 

 approval of the farmers themselves. But if " efficiency" is on 

 that side, the corporation may in the end prevail. 



Size of Farms. What change is taking place in the size of 

 farms? Omitting the bonanza farms of the northwest, the plan- 

 tations of the south and the great ranches of the west, we find that 

 the size of the farm has apparently begun to grow bigger. This is 

 a further indication of our trend toward capitalistic agriculture. 

 For the complete statistics on this point the student is referred 

 to the table in the appendix to this chapter. The size of farms in 

 the strictly agricultural states is given in the brief table below: 



Size of Farms in Six Typical Farming States. Acres 



Average of Six States Above for Seven Decades. 



1850 156 .5 acres 



1860155.8 



1870129.8 



1880124.3 acres 

 1890130.7 

 1900136.9 

 1910140.3 



We may illustrate the tendency of the large farmers to absorb 

 the small farmer by the following concrete illustration: Shortly 

 after the close of the Civil War an ex-soldier by the name of John 

 McNiel moved from Ohio to the eastern part of Kansas and settled 

 on a farm. He located in a community settled almost entirely by 

 people from his section of Ohio. Here John McNiel with his wife 

 built a home on a 160 acre farm. He was a man of unusual indus- 

 try and of sterling honesty. They reared a family of two children, 

 one boy and one girl. They faced the privations of pioneer life 

 with courage. They lived through many months of discourage- 

 ments, but managed to save a little from year to year. By the 



7 Theodore Price in Commerce and Finance, Aug. 23, 1916, Dec. 13, 1916. 

 For a statement of the case for corporation farming, by Pres. G. A. Vincent, 

 of the University of Minnesota, and a spirited reply thereto, see the Dakota 

 Farmer, Sept. 15, 1916, p. 972. 



