FACTORS OF SUCCESS IN FARMING 625 



yields. Being large farms, they have the many advantages of such 

 farms. They combine good production and diversification with 

 these advantages. 



EFFICIENCY FACTORS 



Table 28 gives some of the more important efficiency factors 

 for each county. It also includes similar factors for the 23 most 

 successful dairy farms that sold market milk at wholesale. By 

 the use of these and similar factors for other points, and with 

 the other knowledge gained from the study of the records of 

 large numbers of farms, it is possible to analyze the farm busi- 

 ness and see which points are most in need of attention and 

 which things are already good. When studying a particular 

 farm, reference should also be made to the other tables in order 

 to see whether the conditions on the farm are due to good or 

 bad management or whether they are the natural results for a 

 farm of the same size. Comparison is also made with farms 

 having the same receipts per cow, crop yields, and other factors. 



CONCLUSIONS 



Of course, there are other important factors for success in 

 farming, but on the great majority of farms the area in crops, 

 the yield of these crops, the returns per animal, and the diver- 

 sity of the business are the most important factors. Mistakes 

 can, of course, be made on many other things. But the practical 

 farmer who has these four factors good rarely makes such serious 

 mistakes on other things as to fail to do well. 



For efficient farming in New York an investment of $10,000 

 to $20,000 is usually necessary. In states where land is higher 

 in price a larger amount is needed. Occasionally a farmer does 

 well with a capital of $5000 or even less, but such instances are 

 not numerous. With less than $10,000 it is usually necessary 

 to work with very inadequate equipment, poor stock, and too 

 little land. The capital need not all be owned by the farmer. 

 The land and some of the stock may be furnished by a landlord, 

 so that the tenant farmer need not have a very large capital. 



