286 FAEM MANAGEMENT 



mately 6 dairy cows, 8 other cattle, 10 mature hogs, and 

 93 poultry per farm. All this is done with only $298 worth 

 of hired labor per farm. 



It is easy to see why the farmers in the Central West 

 are prosperous. They have learned how one man may do 

 the work of two by putting the two teams together and 

 dispensing with one driver. In the older parts of the coun- 

 try, the farms have been divided into small fields, as well 

 as small farms, and the farmers are more conservative, 

 so that the use of four-horse teams is not so frequent. But 

 the practice is gaining ground in all regions where large 

 areas of small grain and cultivated crops are raised. 

 Whenever this change takes place, it is inevitable that the 

 farms become larger. They must be large enough to 

 provide fairly full employment for a family. 



182. A dry farming region. As we go from humid to 

 dry regions, the chances of securing a crop become less and 

 the size of farm increases. It is necessary to have a large 

 area in years when a crop is secured, in order to carry the 

 family over dry years. Barton County, Kansas, is less 

 certain of crops than Clay County, Nebraska, or the 

 county in Minnesota, and has larger farms. As we pro- 

 ceed to semiarid regions, the farms become larger. The 

 farms in Barton County average 305 acres. Rush, 

 the adjoining county on the west, is much drier. Here 

 the farms average 388 acres. The next county, Ness, is 

 still drier, and the farms average 629 acres. 



Sherman County, Oregon, is a good county to study for 

 dry farming conditions. The rainfall is only about 10 

 inches, but the low evaporation makes it possible to raise 

 wheat by dry farming methods. In this county, the 

 farms of less than 500 acres decreased over one-half in the 

 ten years from 1900 to 1910. There are almost as many 



