338 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



which it was not practicable to use the more modern methods of crop 

 production, found themselves poorly prepared to compete in swine 

 production with the large farms of the West. The disaster to the 

 sheep industry was much more marked, the numbers having fallen 

 during the decade from 56,000 to 13,000. At the beginning of this 

 decade the production of beef was perhaps the most important phase 

 of agriculture in Chester County. In the beginning of the decade 

 there were 39,000 beef cattle in the county. Competition with the 

 West reduced this number rapidly, and the reduction continued 

 until 1890, when only 11,000 head of these cattle remained in the 

 county. Practically the only live-stock industry left to these 

 farmers was dairying, and it is a bitter pill to the stockmen whose 

 business has been based upon beef cattle, swine, and sheep to 

 descend to the continuous and laborious work of caring for dairy 

 cows and their products. In 1840 there were 16,000 dairy cows 

 in Chester County, Pennsylvania; in 1890 there were 49,000, 

 and dairy products now constitute by far the most important source 

 of income in the county. The small farms in the region could be con- 

 verted into modern family farms only by some such intensive type 

 of farming as dairying, as they are not adapted to fruit and vegetables. 

 What has been said above applies practically to the whole North 

 Atlantic Coast. Small farms still predominate in that region, but the 

 reasons are at least partly historical, and not wholly economic. In 

 the West, which was settled up after labor-saving machinery had 

 been generally introduced, these small farms are few in number and 

 are gradually disappearing to make place for the more effective large 

 farm. In general, farm management investigations have demon- 

 strated that the smallest effective area for a farm is that which will 

 give constant employment at productive labor to the average farm 

 family. It may be any amount larger than this, provided the farmer 

 himself is capable of managing to advantage a larger amount of labor. 



107. APPORTIONING THE FACTORS OF PRODUCTION 1 

 BY E. DAVENPORT 



We are just emerging from a pioneer agriculture, in which land 

 had little value, because it was abundant, and labor was the principal 

 element in the cost of production. If the American farmer has been 



1 Adapted from Circular No. 177, Agricultural Experiment Station, University 

 of Illinois, pp. 3-8. 



