120 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



Small or large farms. One of the popular suggestions for 

 reducing the cost of food is to reduce the size of farms. But, for 

 general farming, our farms are now too small. Machinery makes 

 it possible for a family to work more land than formerly. The 

 farm that uses two or three workers is a family farm. It will 

 employ a farmer and his sons. Four horses are required for 

 farming with modern machinery, but four horses can raise 80 to 

 100 acres of general farm crops. Pasture land, woodland, roads, 

 and farmstead make up half the farm in most sections, hence 

 160 to 200 acres is usually required for efficiency in general 

 farming. In the general farming sections from New York to 

 Nebraska, farms are rapidly changing to the four- to six-horse 

 size. The city, as well as the country, is best off when farms are 

 of an efficient size. With small general farms it is necessary to 

 keep four horses in order to use labor-saving machinery, even if 

 the area is too small to keep the horses busy. There is no benefit 

 to the city dweller in having small farms if the farm horses eat 

 the product. The moderate-sized general farms contribute more 

 per acre to the city food supply than do the small general farms. 1 



Truck and fruit farms may be somewhat smaller, but only a 

 few such farms are required in order to supply our needs. The 

 vast majority of farms must raise hay, grain, potatoes, live-stock, 

 and milk. 



Those who would keep the boys on the farm defeat their pur- 

 pose when they would reduce the size of farms. The four-horse 

 size mentioned above is a two-man farm. If farms are too small 

 to provide profitable work for the sons, they very wisely leave. 



In Jefferson County, New York, it was found that 79 per cent 

 of the boys had left small farms and only 16 per cent had left the 

 good-sized farms (Table 8). 



China furnishes an example of a country with small farms. It 

 is estimated that about 75 per cent of the population are farm- 

 ers. With the little patches, and the hand labor of men, women, 

 and children, each family can produce only a trifle more than it 

 eats. Since there is so little surplus, only a small city population 

 can be supported. 



1 Cornell University Agr. Exp. Sta., Bulletin 295, p. 527. 



