which labor freed by adjustments in the pattern of ownership of machinery 

 can be neither productively employed nor removed from the payroll. Of the 

 three ownership patterns listed in Table 16, Alternative 4, partly owned and 

 partly custom hired, would result in the lowest costs and the highest net 

 farm income. With this pattern of ownership, investment in machinery would 

 be reduced by $1,990, or roughly 30 percent below that of entire self-owner- 

 ship. The cost of complete custom hire. Alternative 3, would increase total 

 costs considerably but would require no capital investment for machinery. 

 It is clear that hiring certain cropping operations done would reduce costs 

 and increase net farm income even though the freed labor could not be re- 

 leased or used productively on the farm. 



Table 17 is a similar summary in which it is assumed that the labor 

 freed can be productively employed and that it would earn $1.00 an hour. 

 Four alternative ownership patterns can be appraised when labor is given a 

 value. 



Alternative 5 — - with machines partly owned, partly hired, and with 

 custom work done off the farm — would result in the largest net farm income. 



Table 17. — Comparison of Investment and Costs and Returns for Alternative Patterns of 



Ownership of Machinery, Assuming Labor Has a Value of $1.00 per Hour and 



Labor Freed Through Custom Hiring Is Not Released, Farm A* 



*See text footnote 6, 7, 10, and 11 for description of differences in costs and in- 

 come when hired labor freed through custom hiring is released. 

 fAU equipment valued at 1949 purchase price. 

 ^Includes costs of hiring and doing custom work where applicable. 

 §See Table 12 for a list of operations. 

 1 1 See Table 13 for a list of operations. 

 lySee Table 15 for a list of operations. 

 ** See text, page 23, for a description of operations. 



26 



