OTHER FACTORS IN DIFFERENT REGIONS 277 



of only 1 .7 acres of crops to the animal unit. The cost of 

 purchased feed amounted to about $400 per farm or $25 

 per cow. The farmers raise very little except hay and 

 corn for the silo. The region is not very prosperous, 

 although it has splendid buildings and so looks prosperous. 

 The buildings were mostly built one or two generations 

 ago when considerable income was being derived from 

 lumber. It is now difficult for a young man of small 

 means to buy a farm and pay for it out of the land, in 

 spite of the fact that the women usually help milk. The 

 small number of tenants shows that few persons are trying 

 to start without capital. Most of the farmers inherited 

 their farms. Some of the few tenants are on land in which 

 they have, or will have, a part interest by inheritance. 

 There are some rich, prosperous farms in the river valleys, 

 but the averages reflect the condition on the hills, because 

 most of the farms are hill-farms. 



The greatest difficulty is the small area of tillable land. 

 This not only fails to raise cash crops but fails to raise 

 enough feed. The greatest need of the region is diversified 

 farming. But this calls for more tillable land to the farm, 

 or larger farms. 



There are a few farmers in this region who have more 

 tillable land and who sell cash crops as well as milk. These 

 are usually doing well. The best thing for this region 

 would be to combine farms so that there would be twice the 

 area of land in crops and twice the pasture area. The best 

 half of the cows from the two farms should be kept. Each 

 of these cows would then have double the" pasture area, so 

 that the pasture would furnish feed for a longer period and 

 be improved. Half the tillable land would then be 

 available for cash crops. The profit on half as many good 

 cows that have abundant pasture would be greater than 



