FACTORS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION 169 



is almost certainly true that the farms are too small on the 

 average. This is particularly true in those parts of New Eng- 

 land which are not favorably situated for market gardening. In 

 many parts the farms average from 70 to 100 acres, one fourth 

 to one half of which is timber. Farms of this size were well 

 adapted to the growing of field crops under older methods ; 

 but the introduction of superior tools and machinery has enabled 

 one man, with plenty of horse power, to do more work than he 

 could formerly and to cultivate larger fields. Moreover, these 

 larger implements require larger fields for their economical em- 

 ployment than the average New England farm affords. In the 

 growing of field crops, therefore, New England agriculture re- 

 quires larger rather than smaller farms on the average. For 

 market gardening, and probably for dairying, they are quite 

 large enough. 



Even in the Middle West there is danger, if the farms should 

 grow appreciably smaller, that the product per man would be 

 reduced, and that could only be described as disastrous. If the 

 farms are made too small, the most efficient tools cannot be 

 used, or, if they are used, they will be used so little as to make 

 their ownership unprofitable. If the farmer cannot use the most 

 efficient tools and machinery, and is forced by the smallness of 

 his farm to use more primitive and less productive methods, his 

 product is decreased and he is impoverished, even though he 

 does succeed in getting a large crop per acre from his small farm. 



]t is not possible to say in advance how large any man's 

 farm ought to be. One can say, however, in general terms, that 

 it ought to be large enough to occupy the reasonable working 

 time of the farmer and his family when they use the best and 

 most efficient tools and machinery known to the farming world, 

 wit! i ample horse power, or some other form of power, to drive 

 thai machinery. According to this rule it would be safe to say 

 that in the growing of such field crops as corn, wheat, oats, 



