FARM LAYOUT 369 



rotation is used with corn one year, small grain two years, 

 and hay two years, and if 10 loads of manure per acre 

 are used during the rotation, then there will usually be 

 more than 20 round trips to the field for a man and more 

 than 40 for a horse in the five years for each acre in the 

 field. This would be an average of 4 man trips and 8 

 horse trips per acre per year. If corn silage is grown, or 

 if the field is small, the trips will usually be more because 

 more days are required. 



If a field is 40 rods from the barn, each round trip would 

 make 80 rods of travel. Such a field would require a 

 mile of extra travel for a man and 2 miles of extra travel 

 for a horse each year over the time required by a field 

 next the barn. This will take about one hour of horse 

 time and half an hour of man time. This time should be 

 worth about 20 cents a year. But this is interest at 5 per 

 cent on $4. It will, therefore, appear that with the above 

 considerations a field near the barn is worth $4 per acre 

 more than a field 40 rods away. Similarly, there would be 

 a difference of $8 for 80 rods, and $16 for half a mile. If 

 a neighbor owned land near one's barn, it would pay to 

 buy this and sell land as far away as half a mile, if the 

 difference in price were not over $16. If such crops as 

 potatoes, apples, and cabbages are grown, the difference 

 is much more. 



Any one can figure the approximate time lost in going 

 to and from distant fields with his particular type of farm- 

 ing, and determine the approximate value of such fields 

 as compared with fields near by. All over the country, 

 farms are so laid out that land near one man's barn is 

 farmed by some one farther away. In the Western States, 

 land just across the road from one farmstead is often 

 farmed by a neighbor who lives half a mile awav. Fre- 



2B 



