FARM MANAGEMENT IN THE PROVO AREA. 23 
portant factor in the large net return on the dairy farms, but the 
type of farming appears of equal importance. Most of the labor 
used on these farms works longer hours than on the other types, and 
the labor is performed on enterprises all of which give good returns. 
In connection with the study of Table 13 it doubtless will prove 
of interest to scrutinize Table 14 fairly closely. This table presents 
a highly condensed digest of the detailed labor requirements of the 
important crops grown on these farms. By consulting the footnotes 
a good idea can be secured of the demands on the time of the op- 
erator in producing the different crops. 
: POSSIBLE MODIFICATIONS FOR GREATER PROFIT. 
ON SMALL FARMS. 
It is evident from a comparison of Tables 13 and 14 that the small 
fruit and general farmers are not fully occupied during the crop- 
growing season, and the reasons for this also are plainly in evidence. 
The small orchardist grows but 144 acres of crops, of which nearly 
3 acres are in apples, as much in peaches, a half acre in small fruits— 
64 acres total fruit. The large orchardist, with 50 per cent more 
labor, cares for three times as many acres of crops, of which more 
than twice as many acres are in fruit. The small general farmer 
grows less than one-third as many acres of crops as the large general 
operator attends to with a little over one-third more labor. The 
question of the seasonal distribution of labor on these small farms is 
of minor importance, however, as labor, particularly harvest labor, 
is quite plentiful in this district, and at the same time these small 
operators have not enough land to keep them busy except under 
systems of management much more intensive than would be wise in 
a region so far removed from the great markets. This is the great 
: weakness with these two groups of farms, the lack of land to oper- 
: ate. It is not always easy to overcome. Only a sixth of the land 
included in this farm-management survey is rented land, though a 
fourth of the farmers interviewed rent part or all of the land they 
operate. With the land area as limited as is at present the case, the 
problem is to make the most of what is at hand and to grow as 
much as possible of the most profitable crops which are adapted to 
the region and its market facilities. 
The typical small general operator in the Provo area, therefore, 
has to concentrate as far as possible on crops which give a high 
return per acre and on crops which can be marketed locally. As the 
market for canning crops (tomatoes, peas, and snap beans) is some- 
what limited in this area, the sugar beet is left as the mainstay for 
most of these farmers. Many of them specialize on beets, producing 
OIE) OE 
lt. >see 
3 eee. 
17The only important exception to this labor abundance is in seasons when peaches 
ripen with unusual rapidity. Some orchardists then have some difficulty in securing 
enough peach pickers. 
