Earning Capacity of Land Requires Study 



Farmers, as well as their financial friends in town, are 

 vitally interested in the earning capacity of land. There 

 is more money to be made in farming today than there 

 has been in the past because of the permanent high 

 prices for produce and an improvement in transportation 

 facilities. Live stock and field products bring nearly 

 twice as much now as they did ten years ago. 



But what is the earning capacity of land? A farm of 

 ioo acres can be managed so as to maintain ioo hogs, a 

 dairy of 20 cows, half a dozen brood mares, a large 

 poultry plant, a garden, an orchard, and an apiary. An 

 income of $5,000 on a total expense for wages and family 

 maintenance of $1,500 would be a fair estimate. Out of 

 the $1,500 expense fund the farmer who is operating on 

 business principles will allow himself and family $500 as 

 wages. He must consider that he owes himself as much 

 as he would any other man for a like amount of work, 

 and his wife is entitled to her share in cash. 



This would mean intensive, systematic, businesslike 

 farming, but the figures are conservative, and any intel- 

 ligent person can obtain these results if such a plan is 

 adopted. By doing more with hogs and poultry, the net 

 earnings might be increased considerably. It would pay 

 to still further diversify by the production of beans, 

 onions, and like crops, for which there is always a good 

 cash market. 



To gain from fifty acres an income equal to the 

 figures given above one would have to drop the dairy and 

 go in mainly for hogs, poultry, onions, potatoes, strawber- 



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