160 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



of corn handled. The area of corn which this one man and 

 equipment can prepare the land for, plant, and keep clean the 

 month after planting, plus the amount of land used for sub- 

 sidiary purposes, becomes the unit of economical farm organiza- 

 tion. One or many of these units may make up a given farm, 

 depending upon the managerial ability of the farmer, the 

 conditions in the household, and the size of the family labor 

 force. In the corn belt, a farm which will not employ one unit 

 is clearly too small. To be of proper size, the farm should 

 make demand for one, two, three, or more of these units, but 

 should not fall halfway between. A farm which is too large for 

 one man, and too small for two, cannot be economically or- 

 ganized for corn production. 



In the dairy regions where milk or cream is the principal 

 source of income, one man and the number of cows he can milk 

 and produce hay and silage for, becomes the unit of organiza- 

 tion. While the unit for any given type of farming varies 

 greatly in land-using power from place to place, and from man 

 to man, the dairy unit is an unusually flexible one on the family- 

 farm, because of the possibility of using children and women 

 in the dairy. 



The significance of the unit system lies in the fact that in 

 general the increase in the area of the farm cannot go on by 

 small additions of an acre now and an acre then, but must be 

 made in considerable jumps if the area is to conform to the 

 demands of economical farm organization. The difficulty in 

 making these jumps often results in adjusting the organization 

 to the available area, sometimes with too high a degree of in- 

 tensity of culture, sometimes with too low a degree of intensity 

 to yield maximum profits. One method of adjusting the size 

 of a farm is to change from one farm to another,! and while this 

 is objectionable from the standpoint of the cost of moving, it 

 is often the most practical way of adjusting the size of the farm 

 to the ability of the farmer and his potential labor force. 



The problem of right proportions between managerial activity 

 and the other factors of production is one of the most important 

 problems related to the size of farms. No rule can be laid down, 



