Xo. 4.] FACTORS IN SUCCESSFUL FARMING. 71 



Those are the practical applications, it seems to me, and 

 if 3'ou give me those figures, those four factors I spoke 

 about, I can tell you, practically, how much money you will 

 make, and perhaps tell you where the weak point is. Now, 

 there isn't much satisfaction in going out and making that 

 $2 a month on a farm just because some newspaper has said 

 it is a good thing to get back to the land and hear the robins 

 sing. There is no pleasure in hearing a robin sing when 

 you are getting only $2 a month and your wages. 



Mr. PoTTEE. I don't quite understand what the method 

 is of making comparisons between large and small farms. 

 For instance, do you go along a road and pick out a good 

 large farm and then go along and pick out a small one ? 

 It doesn't seem to me that you get a fair comparison be- 

 tween the large and the small. 



Professor Waeren. We take absolutely every farm in a 

 section, and that is the only fair comparison. That is a 

 question which we have to answer daily. We take abso- 

 lutely every farm, good and bad, big and little, and have 

 made the figures from all of them. 



Mr. Potter. That is what I didn't understand. I 

 thought you said 600 farms. 



Professor Waeren. Well, those are all within that re- 

 gion ; those are all the farms operated by their owners. I 

 didn't put the tenant farmers in that slide, because I didn't 

 want to confuse you. We find, of course, great variations. 

 But what is the limit ? Why, to move up a step better, you 

 don't need a million acres. A farm of 200 acres, with 100 

 in crops, or 300 acres with 150 acres in crops, is a good 

 farm ; but when you get down to less than 80 acres of crops 

 you have got to figure some to find a fair profit. 



Mr. Wilder. Did you find those figures all prepared, or 

 did you have to do some preliminary work in getting them ? 



Professor Warren. We get them by asking the farmer 

 all his sales. It takes about a quarter of a day to get them 

 on each farm, on the average, and I feel that we get them 

 with a great degree of accuracy because of the way in which 

 we ask. If we ask a farmer what his receipts are, he doesn't 

 know, but if we say, " How much did you get for your 



