Farm Size and the Capital Acquisition 

 Problem on New Hampshire Dairy Farms 



By W. K. Burkett^ 



Chapter I. Problems and Procedure 



PROBLEMS 



FARMS have increased in size very markedly over the past several years, 

 and the purchase prices of physical property used in farming (which 

 is referred to as farm capital in this study) have undergone sharp in- 

 creases. Taken together these have resulted in greatly expanded capital 

 requirements for individual farms. As a result, several types of questions 

 have developed or become intensified: (1) there are signs of doubt and 

 confusion among farmers and would-be farmers as to whether, and how, 

 to obtain farming capital, (2) there are questions as to whether capital 

 is available and used in ways and amounts to attain the greatest economic 

 efficiency, and (3) there are questions of whether equality of opportunity 

 among farmers and for farmers can be improved. Moreover, public and 

 private agencies serving agriculture are raising questions about their de- 

 cisions which may modify developments under the first three types of 

 problems. 



PROCEDURE 



Relevant Economic Theory 



The most relevant theory in respect to capital accumulation seems to be: 

 (1) the application of marginal analysis to determine optimum capital 

 use within and between farms, and (2) the application of the theory of 

 scale to determine optimum size of farm for capital acquisition. In this 

 study the emphasis is on the latter but the former is not wholly ignored. 



* Formerly Associate Agricultural Economist, Agricultural Experiment Station, Uni- 

 versity of New Hampshire. 



Special thanks are due George E. Frick, Agricultural Economist, Agricultural Re- 

 search Service. U. S. Department of Agriculture, and Silas B. Weeks, Economist, 

 Cooperative Extension Service, University of New Hampshire, for their painstaking 

 review and suggested changes; to Herbert Scheibel, for preparing the figures; and to 

 Mrs. Doris Batchelder, for careful preparation of the manuscript. 



