46 N. IT. Age. Experiment Station [Bulletin 260 



Tenant Farms 



There is no definite system of renting farms in this area except that 

 the transaction is usually on a cash basis. The census reported 126 ten- 

 ant farms in Grafton County, 107 of which were cash rented.'^ Out of 

 the 414 in this study, 44 might be classified as tenant farms. However, 

 21 of these paid no rent, but had the use of the farm by paying certain 

 fixed costs. Usually the tenant paid the taxes and often the insurance. 

 One or both of these items were likely to constitute the entire charge 

 for the use of the farm. With a very few exceptions, these were family 

 affairs. 



There were 23 farms mostly on a cash rent basis that had the appear- 

 ance of being business propositions. A financial summary of these is 

 shown in Table 34. Incidentally, the method of figuring the corre- 

 sponding farm labor income for tenant farms is also illustrated. 



The average farm labor income for this group was $508, which is 

 considerably better than that for all farms in the survey. The tenants' 

 labor incomes averaged $705, and their returns on capital averaged 

 3.89 per cent because they had little capital and paid the landlord rent 

 corresponding to a low interest rate. 



BUSINESS ANALYSES 



Size of Farm Business 



A proper size is necessary for the most successful development of 

 any business undertaking. This is emphasized by the recent tendency 

 for industry to form corporations and super-corporations in order to 

 exercise control over large amounts of capital. Farming is one of the 

 few business undertakings in which the individual manager still con- 

 tinues to meet competition with a good measure of success. This is par- 

 ticularly true of dairy farming. Nevertheless, within the individual 

 farmer's range of control, there is a choice of size of business which is 

 important. 



New ITam])slnre is typical of an early settled region with farms laid 

 out in small fields to accommodate the use of hand tools in a self-suf- 

 ficient type of agriculture. The hoe and the sickle limited a man's 

 eft'orts to few acres. Irregular i)atclies of potentially tillable land and 

 plenty of movable stones for building fences have contributed to the 

 definiteness of these small dimensions. Under present conditions even 

 the dairyman has his six-foot mower, a horse-rake, a manure spreader. 

 He may have a milking machine and a tractor. The original farm is 

 inadequate. The oi)erator must ])roduce more units with less human 

 labor. The volume of production must be increased in order that 

 smaller increments of profit per unit may contribute to an increased 

 total net income. 



To undertake any industrial enterprise without first giving regard 

 to size would be considered suicidal. Because jn-esent-day farmers have 

 grown u]) on these acres and, scarcely realizing, have been forced out 

 of conditions in whicli small farms were adequate, they are often han- 



I 



