SIZE OF FARMS 



259 



tools. If a small farm does have nearly all the list, it 

 cannot use them enough to pay for the investment. The 

 more efficient and numerous machines become, the larger 

 our farms should be. It is interesting to notice how many 

 of the tools are of very recent development. Almost half 

 of the value of farm machinery on a well-equipped farm 

 is invested in machinery that has been perfected in the 

 last few years. 



Apparently, the efficiency with which the labor of men, 

 teams, and tools can be used is the important factor in 

 making the larger farms pay better. The results on tenant 

 farms also agree with these conclusions. The tenant who 

 furnishes labor finds the larger farms more profitable. 

 The profits of the landlord who furnishes no labor seem to 

 be little affected by the size of the farm. 



Table 48 gives the same results for another county. 

 The small farms arc under-equipped, but at double the 

 cost per acre of the large farms. 



TABLE 48. SIZE OF FARM RELATED TO EFFICIENCY OF MA- 

 CHINERY. 578 FARMS, LIVINGSTON COUNTY, NEW YORK 



Exactly the same point is she wn by the Census for the 

 United States in 1900. The farms of less than 100 acres 

 had a very poor equipment, but the investment per acre 

 was much more than on the large farms. (Table 49.) 



