172 FARM MANAGEMENT 



It appears that the average farming of any community 

 is not quite as intensive as conditions warrant. It pays to 

 use methods that will secure a little better crop than the 

 average, but farmers are not so foolish as to be 100 per 

 cent out of adjustment to their conditions, as is assumed 

 when it is said that they ought to secure double the present 

 yields on any given soil. 



113. Raising the maximum yield of potatoes. An 

 intensive potato farm has attracted considerable attention. 1 

 The farmer has laid 10 miles of tile drain on his 57-acre 

 farm. His average yield of potatoes for the last nine years 

 reported was 282 bushels. One year it was 417 bushels. 



The average receipts for the first nine years were $214 

 above farm expenses. This represents the pay for the 

 owner's work and interest on capital, or the amount that 

 the family had to live on and pay interest, but the farm 

 increased in value during this time. For the second nine 

 years, the average receipts were $2786 and the farm ex- 

 penses $1775. This leaves $1011 per year as pay for the 

 use of capital and owner's labor. Half of this was earned 

 by the $10,000 capital. The other half represents pay 

 for the farmer's labor, or his labor income. This is a little 

 lower than the average for the neighboring townships in 

 Livingston County. One in every twenty-five of the 

 farmers in this region made over $2500. 



The farm is a little over one-third as large, but the capital 

 is as large as the average in the region. The same energy 

 would undoubtedly have brought at least double the profit, 

 if expended in farming by the usual methods of the region. 

 The high yields attracted so much attention that one of 

 the great railroads hired the owner to manage demonstra- 

 tion farms. Naturally, the farmers who have watched the 



1 U. S. Dept. Agr., Farmers' Bulletin 454. 



