UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



| BULLETIN No. 848 J 



,W» OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY •V 



•jrc^^t. 



OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY 



Contribution from the Office of Farm Management 



H. C. TAYLOR, Chief 



S^fr ^f^J-U 



Washington, D. C. 



June 22, 1920 



AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF SMALL FARMS NEAR 

 WASHINGTON, D. C. 



By W. C. FUNK, Assistant Agriculturist. 



Introduction 



Summary of results. 

 Description of area_. 



Kind of farming 



Profits 



Farm receipts 



Farm expenses 



Capital 



CONTENTS. 



Page. Page. 



1 Comparison of Individual farms 9 



2 Truck-crop yields 11 



3 Maintaining soil fertility 12 



3 Increasing acreage by double-cropping _ 13 



6 Machinery and tools 15 



7 Marketing the produce 16 



7 Farm products retained for home use- 17 



8 Tenure 18 



INTRODUCTION. 



This bulletin presents the results of a study of the organization of 

 small farms in the vicinity of Washington, D. C. Information was 

 obtained regarding the important and outstanding farm practices 

 followed on 152 small farms, and an analysis was made of the busi- 

 ness of each of these farms to find out the amount of capital used, 

 the kind and quantity of crops raised, the kind and amount of live 

 stock kept, the nature and volume of receipts, the expenses incurred, 

 the returns realized, and other facts bearing on the organization and 

 operation of these farms. 



In this study only those men were interviewed who depended on 

 the returns from their farms as their main source of income. It was 

 an economic study of farming on small areas in which each operator 

 devoted most of his time to labor and supervision on the place. Men 

 who had a regular occupation away from the farm and spent only 

 evenings, holidays, and vacations on their farms were not included, 



