148 



FARM MANAGEMENT 



crop that may return $500, sound very much bigger than 

 a corn crop that may be worth $30 per acre. These 

 figures give no indication of the profits. When all costs 

 are subtracted, the crop producing the highest receipts may 

 not give the largest profit per acre. But even profit per 

 acre has no significance, unless we know how many acres 



TABLE 24. RELATION OF LAND COST TO TOTAL COST OF CROP 

 PRODUCTION ON A SUCCESSFUL NEW YORK FARM 



a farmer can grow, how this fits into his year as a whole, 

 and how much capital it involves. 



The most important problem of the farmer, particularly 

 of the American farmer, is how to get the most for his 

 year's labor. If cherries give a net profit of $50 per acre, 

 and hay a profit of $10, the farmer who refuses to raise 

 cherries may still be wise, if cherries interfere with hay, 

 because the time required to raise one acre of cherries 

 may raise 10 acres of hay. There are some instances in 

 which land is limited so that the acre basis has some im- 

 portance, but it is usually easy to either buy or rent 

 land. 



The results of a set of cost accounts on a 90-acre farm in 

 1909 are shown in Table 25. This farm had about 45 acres 

 of tillable land. From the usual method of figuring profits 



