Figure 3. Long-run trend in eow numbers and projection, 

 1939-1975, Coos County* 



9000 



8000 



en 



I 7000 



o 



6000 



5000- 



I I ) I I I I I I I I I 



I I I I i I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 



T 



■ ■ ■ ' 



o-j- 



O 



in 



CO 



O 



N. 



in 



N. 



YEAR 



* Data 1939-58 from town tax record?, 1959 data estimated from Farm Survey. Trend 

 fitted by methods of least squares. Y=8567.13 — 76.03X, where Y equals cow numbers 

 and X equals time, r=:.76, S=397. 



the Soil Bank. Thus annual fluctuations in response to general economic 

 conditions were at least as severe in changing cow numbers as was the 

 Program. 



Machinery on Enrolled Units 



Thirty-seven of the 120 whole unit Soil Bank cooperators reported farm 

 machinery of some sort (Appendix Table 6). This machinery varied in 

 type from horse-drawn and virtually unusable pieces to high-capacity items 

 of recent vintage. In order to get a meaningful idea of the volume of ma- 

 chinery involved, tractor numbers were analyzed on an age basis. Employ- 

 ing a useful life expectancy of 16 years, the estimated new tractor life 

 of the 34 tractors on Soil Bank units was 18 medium-sized tractors. When 

 no obsolescence is assumed on these tractors, the equivalent of 18 new 

 tractors would be released from farm production. This is roughly three- 

 fourths of one year's tractor replacements on the farms remaining in pro- 

 duction in the County. As discussed previously, farm numbers and acreage 

 of cropland have been declining. The same type of situation would pre- 



19 



