UNITED STATES DEPARTIMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



BULLETIN No. 713 



OflSce of the Secretary 



Contribution from the Office of Farm Management 



W. J. SPILLMAN, Chief 



Washington, D, C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER 



October 9, 1918 



A STUDY OF FARMING IN SOUTHWESTERN 

 KENTUCKY. 



By J. H. Arnold, Agriculturist. 



CONTENTS. 



How to measure success in farming 1 



Factors wliich make some farms more suc- 

 cessful than others 2 



Good far min g increases the value of the land. 9 

 The practical value of standards of farm or- 

 ganization - 9 



Standard yields and farm values for im- 

 portant crops and productive animals 



A study of five Individual farms which, in 

 general, illustrate good standards for the or- 

 ganization of farms in the areas studied 



10 



11 



HOW TO MEASURE SUCCESS IN FARMING. 



To be successful as a business, a farm should earn a fair rate of 

 interest on the investment and return to the operator fair wages for 

 labor and management after paying all expenses, including deprecia- 

 tion. In the locality under consideration in this bulletin 5 per cent is 

 assumed to be a fair rate of interest on invested capital. It is just 

 about what 68 landlords in this locality averaged from rented farms, 

 and is about what the average reliable real-estate loans would net the 

 investor. 



Wages for labor and management are commonly known as labor 

 income. The average labor income of the 342 farms studied was found 

 to be $356.55. The following is a business statement of the average of 

 these farms showing how labor income is derived : 



Total capital (owner's and tenant's capital combined)- $17,029.00 

 Working capital 3, 494. 00 



Total receipts $2, 896. 00 



Total expenses, including unpaid family 

 labor 1,688.00 



Farm income 1, 208. 00 • 



Five per cent interest on investment ($17,029) 851.45 



Labor income 356. 55 



64337°— 18— Bull. 713 1 



