10 BULLETIN 633, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



suits in flooding the market and thus lowering prices below the point 

 of profit. Farming based wholly on vegetables and fruits to be sold 

 in distant markets is thus decidedly a speculative business. In general 

 it is an unsafe kind of farming, though in some years it may be 

 highly profitable. 



THE PROPER STATUS OF THE ^STRAWBERRY INDUSTRY IN SOUTH- 



WEST MISSOURI. 



A farm that is large enough to give full employment to the labor 

 available to the owner in the production of wheat, corn, and live- 

 stock products can be made profitable in this region without depend- 

 ing on fruit as a source of income. Yet even on these farms a small 

 acreage of strawberries properly tended is a desirable enterprise. In 

 some years the income from them will be small, but in other years 

 it will be considerable. Even if the crop is an entire failure, the 

 farmer is not crippled financially. 



On farms that are too small to give full employment in the pro- 

 duction of wheat, corn,. and live-stock products there is greater need 

 of some intensive crop like strawberries as a means of giving em- 

 ployment to farm labor ; that is, of increasing the magnitude of the 

 farm business. The force of this remark is shown by the experience 

 of farmers in this community, for by far the greater portion of the 

 strawberry area is on the smaller farms, as should be the case. How- 

 ever, Table 5, showing the average labor income from different types 

 of farming, shows that the very small farms devoted mainly to fruit 

 are not as satisfactory as larger farms on which grain and live stock 

 are the main sources of income. 



In this connection it may be noted that the average value of man 

 labor per crop-acre on the grain and live-stock farms was $5.16, on 

 the grain and fruit farms $7.45, while on the 17 fruit farms it was 

 $11.92, or nearly three times as much as on the grain and live-stock 

 farms. 



The number of acres of crops per man on the four types of farms 

 was as follows: Grain and live stock, 59.3; grain, 54.3; grain and 

 fruit. 42.5; fruit, 22.3. This shows the greater intensity of fruit 

 farming as compared with the other types prevailing in the region. 



THE SPECULATIVE NATURE OF FRUIT ENTERPRISES. 



Fruit crops of all kinds are occasionally a complete loss from un- 

 timely frost. This has been the case with the strawberry crop in 

 the vicinity of Monett, Mo., once in the last 10 years. 



In occasional years also prices are so low that no profit is made 

 in the business. These are years when the crop is unusually good in 



