OTHER FACTORS IN DIFFERENT REGIONS 287 



farms of over 1000 acres as there are of less than 500. 

 The average size is 799 acres, with 588 acres of improved 

 land. The usual practice in this county is to till the land 

 one year to save moisture and raise a crop the next year. 

 The attempt is to save two years of rain for one year's 

 crop. In 1909, there were 264 acres of wheat and 42 

 acres of other crops per farm. But when measured in 

 terms of man-labor these farms were only a little larger 

 than the 62-acre farms in New Jersey. But there were 13 

 work animals per farm instead of 3. 



183. Size of farms in some typical states. Table 57 

 shows the size groups in which the number of farms in- 

 creased or decreased in the ten years 1900 to 1910. 1 



In nearly all states there is an increase in number of 

 farms of less than 20 acres. Some of this increase is due to 

 the very commendable tendency for persons who are em- 

 ployed in towns to live on small places where some products 

 may be raised for home use. In some states, the retired 

 farmers have many such small places around towns. Prob- 

 ably in every state there is an increase in greenhouses and 

 other intensive types of farming near the towns and cities. 



In the states where grain, hay, and live-stock farming 

 predominates, the farms of 175 to 259 acres usually 

 show the most rapid rate of increase. The sizes that 

 show the largest percentage of increase are marked + +. 

 In Ohio and Indiana, the most rapid increases have been 

 in the 100- to 174-acre group ; in New York and Minnesota 

 in the 260- to 499-acre group. The farms of 20 to 100 acres 

 are usually decreasing rapidly. This is the region where 

 farmers are driving more horses per man. Under these 



1 In comparing states where the number of farms have increased in all 

 groups percentages must be used, but for the states here used the num- 

 bers show the point. 



