FARM PROFITS. 41 



the average. This was a large farm, with 344 acres in crops, and 29 

 per cent of the total receipts were from crop sales. On another farm 

 only 15 acres per man and 6 acres per horse were worked. This was 

 a very small farm and a part of the operator's time with his team was 

 spent at outside work. 



THE WISCONSIN AREA. 



The area in Wisconsin is more or less typical of dairying in southern 

 Wisconsin, and is located but a few miles west of Madison. The 

 surface is rolling to hilly and only the main wagon roads are improved. 



THE FARM BUSINESS. 



A summary of the farm business for the 60 farms over the five-year 

 period 1913 to 1917 is shown in Table IX. 



Distribution of the Farm Area. 



The farms averaged 148 acres, with 51 acres in pasture, 28 acres 

 in corn, 25 acres in oats, and 22 acres in hay. Ninety-two per cent of 

 the crop land was occupied by these three crops. 



In figure 14 the distribution of the farm area is shown graphically 

 for the average of the 60 farms over the five-year period. The crop 

 area occupied 54 per cent of the farm area, tillable pasture 19 per 

 cent, untillable pasture 7 per cent, woodland not pastured 9 per cent, 

 and waste, roads, building lots, etc., 6 per cent. There was practi- 

 cally no difference in the distribution for the various years. 



Figure 15 shows graphically the average distribution of the crop 

 area. The three leading crops in the organization of these farms are 

 corn, oats, and hay. For four out of the five years the proportion 

 of the crop acreage devoted to these crops was remarkably uniform. 

 In 1916 the corn acreage was short and the hay acreage was in- 

 creased. The acreage of oats was also increased slightly this year. 

 There was a great variation in the way in which the corn crop had to 

 be utilized in this area. For the years 1913, 1914, 1915, and 1916 

 the greater share of the crop was harvested for grain. In 1915 and 

 1917, owing to early frosts, the greater share was cut as fodder corn. 

 The acreage put in the silo increased during the period of study. 



CROP YIELDS. 



The five-year average yield of corn was 28 bushels per acre, of 

 oats 33 bushels, and of hay 1.7 tons. The yield of corn varied from 

 19 bushels per acre in 1915 to 36 bushels in 1913. The yield of oats 

 showed less variation than that of corn, ranging from 26 bushels per 

 acre in 1914 to 37 bushels in 1917. Only 2 per cent of the total 

 production of corn was sold, 5 per cent of the oats, and 3 per cent of 

 the hay. Thus practically all the crops grown were fed on the farms 

 and the crop sales were only 3 per cent of the total farm receipts. 



