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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



BULLETIN No. 941 j 



Contribution from the Office of Farm Management and 



Farm Economics 



H. C. TAYLOR, Chief 



Washington, D. C. 



April 8, 1921 



FARM MANAGEMENT IN THE OZARK REGION OF 



MISSOURI. 



A STUDY OF THE ORGANIZATION AND OPERATION OF A NUMBER OF 

 REPRESENTATIVE FARMS. 



By H. M. Dixon, Associate Farm Economist, and J. M. Ptjrdom, Scientific 



Assistant. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Introduction 1 



Summary 1 



Location and character of the area 3 



Farm business and income 12 



Farm investment 15 



Crops 17 



Crop production and yields. 19 



Farm receipts 20 



Farm expenses 20 



Crop management 22 



Live-stock management 28 



Pasture 31 



The organization and profits of individual 



farms 40 



INTRODUCTION. 



This bulletin is based on a study of the organization and management 

 of 79 farms distributed in five counties in the southern and south- 

 eastern Ozark region of Missouri. Thirty-one of these farms are 

 representative of the conditions of rolling and hilly upland farms: 

 the other 48 are more representative of the conditions on the valley 

 and level-upland farms. Throughout the bulletin these two classes 

 of farms are treated separately. 



Data are presented on size of farms, distribution of farm area, 

 capital, receipts and expenses, and the returns in farm income and 

 labor income. The first part of the bulletin treats of the findings 

 largely from the standpoint of the area as a whole, and the latter 

 part is devoted to the consideration of representative individual 

 farms, with a view of emphasizing some of the outstanding factors 

 contributing to success or failure. 



SUMMARY. 



Topographical structure to a large extent determines the agricul- 

 tural value of the land. The southern and eastern Ozark region of 

 Missouri is a mountainous plateau, predominantly rough and rocky, 



