ORGANIZATION OF THE AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISE 343 



pensive methods belonging to a transition stage that correct bad 

 conditions and thereby considerably increase the yield without 

 seriously raising the price, so that the results may be profitable alike 

 to the farmer and to the public whom he serves. 



D. Large- vs. Small-Scale Production 

 108. THE PASSING OF THE BIG FARM 



a) THE BREAK-UP OF THE PLANTATION 1 



In all of the five geographic divisions, with the exception of the 

 North Central, the increase since 1850 in the number of farms has 

 been relatively greater than that in farm area, and consequently the 

 average size of farms, with the exception above noted, has decreased 

 during the same period. In the accompanying table the average size 

 of farms is given by geographic divisions for each census year, begin- 

 ning with 1850. 



TABLE III 



AVERAGE NUMBER OF ACRES PER FARM, BY GEOGRAPHIC DIVISIONS: 

 SUMMARY 1850-1900 



An examination of the average size of farms for the individual 

 states and that for the counties discloses in many of the older settled 

 communities a decrease in the average size of farms. This is most 

 marked in the cotton-growing states, where it is the result of sub- 

 division of the larger holdings and the leasing of smaller areas to 

 tenants, the size depending upon the amount of land which the tenant 

 can properly cultivate by his own labor. This movement began 

 shortly after the close of the Civil War, and is still in progress hi most 

 sections where large areas are devoted to the growing of cotton. Its 

 extent may be measured by the reduction in the average area of 



1 Adapted from Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900, Vol. V, p. xxi. 



