239 



This $757 was earned by the farmer's money and the work of the 

 family. Money can readily be loaned on farm mortgages at 5 per cent. 

 Hence, only $481 can be said to have been earned by the labor of the farmer 

 and his family. The unpaid farm labor by members of the family would 

 have cost about $58 if it had been hired. The farmer really earned as his 

 wages, $423. This we call his labor income. Hired men in this region 

 get about $360, house rent, and some farm products. If a farmer's labor 

 income is less than this, he might as well lend his money and hire out. 



About one-third of the farmers in Tompkins County are making 

 less than hired men's wages; one-third are making wages; and one-third 

 make more than wages. 



Table 2 shows the same results for Livingston County. The region 

 is a very prosperous one and gives an average labor income of $584. 



Table 2. — ^Averages, Livingston County. 



Number of farms 574 



Average capital $10,548 



Average receipts 2,172 



Average business expenses 980 



Receipts less expenses 1,192 



Interest at 5 per cent 627 



Income from unpaid labor 665 



Value of unpaid labor except owner's 81 



Labor income 584 



Most Important Factors Affecting Profits. 



The four most important factors affecting profits have been found 

 to be size of business, crop yields, production per cow or other important 

 kind of animals, and diversity of the business. So strikingly do these four 

 factors stand out that if we know them we can guess the labor income 

 with approximate accuracy in about 95 per cent of the cases. Only in a 

 few cases do practical farmers make other mistakes of so serious a nature 

 as to prevent them from getting a good labor income when these four 

 factors are favorable. 



Farms Not Balanced. — Farmers are like other people, they have hob- 

 bies. There is practically no relationship between good cows and good 

 crops or between size of the farm and production of crops or cows. We 

 find that the farmers who have the best cows average very little above their 

 neighbors in crop yields. Because the crops are good gives no indication 

 of whether the cows are good or bad. On the average, there is practically 

 no relation between the size of the farm and quality of the crops or cows. 

 As a result we have all kinds of combinations of the factors of profits. 

 There are very few farms that rank well in each of the four respects. 



Size of Business. 

 Ways of Measuring Size. — There are many ways in which the size 

 of the business may be measured. Farms may be compared on number of 



