FACTORS OF SUCCESSFUL FARMING NEAR MONETT, MO. 3 



sown in the fall of 1913. when the price of wheat was still moderate. 

 It is probable that the frequent occurrence of hog cholera in this 

 region may be partly responsible for the decrease in the acreage of 

 corn and the increase in the acreage of wheat, as the number of hogs 

 kept on these farms has decreased considerably in recent years. 



The oat crop occupied 10.8 per cent of the crop area on these 

 farms, which is about a normal acreage for this crop. A great many 

 farmers here do not grow oats. In general, the crop is not satisfac- 

 tory, it being too far north for winter oats and too far south for 

 spring oats. Xot infrequently the crop is an entire failure. The 

 reason for the persistence of the oat crop under such unfavorable 

 conditions is its value as feed for horses and the scarcity of other 

 kinds of roughage. For the most part, the oats are cut and bound 

 and fed in the sheaf. A portion of the crop may be thrashed and 

 fed as grain. 



Various hay crops occupy about 9 per cent of the crop area of the 

 farms surveyed, which is approximately the status occupied by such 

 crops for the last quarter of a century. About two-thirds of the hay 

 land is in timothy or timothy and clover, the rest being in millet, 

 sorghum, oats, rye, etc. 



FRUITS. 



The town of Monett is the center of one of the most important 

 strawberry-producing regions in this country. The acreage of berries 

 is not large when compared with that of wheat and corn, or even hay, 

 but it is very considerable when the intensity of the strawberry enter- 

 prise is taken into consideration. Of the 211 farms x included in this 

 bulletin. 1.5 per cent of the total crop area was in strawberries, two- 

 thirds of which were in bearing. Other fruit crops also are more or 

 less prominent. Apples occupy 2.6 per cent of the total crop area, 

 and other fruits six-tenths of 1 per cent. While small areas of fruit 

 are found on farms of all sizes, it is mainly the smaller farms that 

 make fruit growing a specialty. 



YIELDS PER ACRE. 



The average yield of corn on these farms for the year 1914 was 25 

 bushels per acre, which is approximately normal. The yield of this 

 crop in Barry County at the last three censuses was, respectively, 26, 

 25, and 17 bushels. In Lawrence County it was 26, 21, and 24 

 bushels. 



The average yield of oats for the year of this survey was 24 bushels, 

 as compared with census figures of 21, 22, and 23 for Barry County, 

 and 22, 25, and 26 for Lawrence Cotmty. This again is a normal 

 yield. 



1 Thirty farms operated by owners who rented out a part of their land are omitted in 

 most of the discussion which follows. 



