iO BULLETIN 713, IJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTURE. 



emphasize the need of standards of organization and practice that 

 are approximately correct for safe and reliable farming, based on 

 the experience of successful farmers. 



In asking such questions as these the size of the farm is in mind as 

 a basis for calculating these various factors. In some sections, 

 however, as in the cotton belt, the number of mules or horses avail- 

 able is the basis for organizing the farm business. In sections where 

 dairying is the prevailing type of farming the number of dairy cows 

 is the basis. In most sections, however, where diversified farming is 

 the rule and where the land is comparatively high in price, the basis 

 of farm organization is the size of the farm rather than the number 

 of work stock or dairy stock needed to equip it. Thus, in this locality, 

 where differences in tj^pes of farming are based largely on the 

 amount of land available for a farm, and where diversified farming 

 is the rule, the amount of improved land available should be taken 

 as the basis of farm organization. 



No farm organization, however well it may measure up to stand- 

 ards based on the experience of the best farmers, can prove successful 

 if the operator is not efficient, if yields are much below the average 

 of the community, if prices of cash crops should be abnormally low, 

 or if live stock should not show a substantial profit on feed con- 

 sumed. On the other hand, the farm organized on the basis of the 

 experience of the best farmers and operated by an industrious and 

 efficient manager could hardly fail to be successful with average 

 yields and prices. 



STANDARD YIELDS AND FARM VALUES FOR IMPORTANT CROPS 

 AND PRODUCTIVE ANIMALS. 



Table I shows the average yields and farm values for important 

 crops on the most successful 140 farms in 1915, also the estimated nor- 

 mal yields and farm values of these crops. The figures given for nor- 

 mal yields are based on estimates of 20 to 25 farmers in the locality. 

 In estimating normal farm values the 1915 Yearbook of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture was consulted, and account also 

 was taken of local conditions and the range of prices prevailing for 

 several years past, during which time the writer has been familiar 

 with farm conditions in this region. 



It will be observed that the yields for wheat and corn were abnor- 

 mally low in 1915, the year to which the farm records applied. The 

 yields for tobacco and hay, however, were higher that year than the 

 normal, which to a large extent compensated for low yields of cereals. 



Farm values for live stock and live-stock products were generally 

 higher in 1915 than the normal. This is shown in Table II. The 

 normal values were estimated on the basis of prices ruling in the 



