242 FARM MANAGEMENT 



Many books and articles have been written about the 

 delights of farming on a few acres. Such interesting titles 

 as " Three Acres and Liberty," " Ten Acres Enough," 

 and " Five Acres Too Much," have appeared, and now we 

 have a " Little Farm Magazine." Five acres is enough for 

 some types of farming. It might even be too much if it 

 were all in greenhouses. But the cases where so small an 

 area is enough for a good business are cases in which as 

 much capital is usually invested as is common on a 200- 

 acre farm. Such books are nearly always written by some 

 one who has a comfortable income from some other source 

 than the farm. Three acres is a very delightful place for 

 a home, when one has a sure income, but three acres as a 

 business proposition is different. The same idea has even 

 broken out in poetry about a " Little-farm-well-tilled." 

 There may be less poetry, but there is a better living, in 

 a large farm well managed. 



Much of the discussion of this subject is confused by the 

 almost universal acceptance of the error that a saving of 

 land is the most important factor in raising a crop. We 

 have already seen that labor is the major cost item in all 

 farming (page 146). This is particularly true for inten- 

 sive crops, where the labor cost is often five to ten times 

 the cost for use of land. The farmer is interested in profit 

 per man, not profit per acre. The country will also prosper 

 in proportion to the profit per worker. Some parts of 

 China may be ideal in profits per acre, but the small profit 

 per man does not allow a high development of civilization, 

 either on the farm or in the city. The person who rides 

 by a farm is at once struck by waste land, but little is 

 thought of the idle horse or of labor lost by poor machinery 

 or small fields, yet these are much more important items. 



The assumption is often made that the yield per acre will 



