284 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



Without question the additional outlay increases the acreage 

 which two men can handle just about in proportion to the increase 

 in cost. 



C. Giving Capital Outlays Their Greatest Effectiveness 



86. THE EFFICIENCY OF CAPITAL-GOODS AS RELATED TO 

 SIZE OF FARM 1 



BY G. F. WARREN 



Three or four horses are the smallest number that can be used 

 efficiently with modern machinery. A survey of 586 farms in Tomp- 

 kins County, New York, shows those of 151 to 200 acres to be the 

 smallest ones that have an average of four horses per farm. The 

 farms of less than 30 acres average 1.4 horses per farm. The 

 figures of acres per horse are still more striking. The small farms have 

 not enough horses to make efficient teams and yet they are over- 

 supplied with horses compared with their area. On these farms there 

 are only 15 acres per horse. On the largest farms, one horse farms 

 three times this area, with no resulting decrease in crop yields. When 

 we consider the cost of keeping a horse we see what a great advantage 

 the larger farmers have. 



According to the United States Census (Twelfth), the area farmed 

 per man has increased one-third in the past twenty years. This 

 increase has been due to the use of more horses per team, increasing 

 the acreage that he could farm in the same ratio. At the same time 

 the crop yields of the country have increased. The most striking 

 examples of the use of four- to six-horse teams are in the Middle West. 

 In some cases, as in Iowa, this has resulted in a decrease in rural 

 population. At the same time total production has increased. One 

 man is often farming as much land as two men farmed a few years 

 ago and doing it better. 



The figures showing relative efficiency of horses are as given in 

 Table XXXIII. 



The case as to farm machinery is similar. The value of farm 

 machinery is only $341 for farms of 61-100 acres. These valuations 

 are probably not over half of what new machinery would cost. Any- 

 one who has ever made a list of the necessary farm machinery will see 

 at once how inadequately these small farms are equipped. Yet their 

 machinery cost nearly twice as much per acre as that on the larger 



1 Adapted from Bulletin 295, Cornell Experiment Station, pp. 419-21. 



