SIZE AND DIVERSITY OF FARM 825 



Diversified farming is most successful when the several enterprises 

 chosen do not compete with each other for labor. Crops are said to be 

 competing only when they demand the attention of the farmer at precisely 

 the same portion of the growing season. Agricultural surveys in many 

 localities have shown that diversity of enterprises increases the farmer's 

 labor income. 



Dairying, which is generally considered a specialty, is more successful 

 when combined with the production of cash crops. The labor required to 

 do the milking mornings and evenings is more than sufficient to care for 

 the herd. If the time of the laborers can be utilized in the production 

 of crops, profits are increased. 



SIZE OF FARMS 



The scale on which farm operations are conducted is determined by 

 many factors. It is often fixed by the amount of available capital or the 

 size of the farm on which one is already located. If large-scale farming 

 were decidedly more profitable than small-scale farming there would be no 

 difficulty in embarking in it. Investigations show that farming on a very 

 large scale has certain disadvantages and more frequently results in failure 

 than moderate or small-scale farming. Consequently, it is difficult to 

 borrow capital on a large scale for this purpose. There are no hard and 

 fast lines separating large, medium and small-scale farming. As already 

 indicated, the acreage of the farm is not the true test. More capital and 

 labor may be employed on ten acres intensively farmed than on a thousand 

 acres most extensively farmed. 



In North America the majority of farms fall into the class of medium- 

 size farms. A study of statistics shows that there is a tendency for the size 

 of farms to change with the change in efficiency of the unit of labor. The 

 introduction of larger teams and large farm implements, thus increasing 

 the area that one man can farm, has had a tendency to increase the size of 

 the one-man farm over a considerable portion of the corn belt. Small 

 farms and very large farms are decreasing in numbers, while medium-size 

 farms are increasing in numbers. 



Size Depends on Type of Farming. — For the production of cereals, 

 100 to 200 acres is considered a moderate size farm. For the raising of 

 vegetables, 20 to 40 acres is a medium size. The size of the farm, therefore, 

 is largely dependent upon the type of farming. If the crops grown are fed 

 to dairy cows, the labor required and the gross income received are both 

 increased. The combination of dairying and cash crops, therefore, need 

 not be quite so large as when crops only are depended upon. The capital 

 required will vary according to the region selected and the type of farming, 

 and when comparing the labor income of different types of farms, capital 

 invested is a better measure of size than land area. In the better portions 

 of the corn belt $10,000 would be too small an investment to yield a fair 

 income. Land values at $150 to $200 per acre would make the acreage 



