UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



*s£?r w*. 



BULLETIN No. 482 



OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY 



Contribution from the Office of Farm Management 



W. J. Spillman, Chief 



jWr^-fiu 



Washington, D. C. 



February 19, 1917 



FARMING IN THE BLUEGRASS REGION. 



A Study of the Organization and Management of 178 Farms in Central Kentucky. 



By J. H. Arnold, Agriculturist, and Frank Montgomery, Scientific Assistant. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction 1 



Method of study 2 



General description of region 3 



History of bluegrass farm enter- 

 prises 5 



Rotation of crops 7 



Soil 7 



Climate , 8 



Seasonal distribution of operations. 9 



Labor and power units required 10 



Crop yields for 1913 12 



Land tenure and cropper labor 14 



Importance of size of farm 15 



Page. 



Types of farms 18 



Relation of type of farm to effi- 

 ciency 19 



Relation of type of farm to utiliza- 

 tion of pasture '. 20 



Relation of type of farm to crop 



yield 21 



Relation of diversity to profitable 



farming 24 



Cost of production 25 



The prime factors in profitable farm- 

 ing 27 



INTRODUCTION. 



The purpose of this bulletin is to present a general description of 

 the farm-management practices followed on farms in the bluegrass 

 region of Kentucky and to determine from analyses of the operations 

 on about two hundred such farms the relative efficiency of the dif- 

 ferent types of farming in vogue and the factors which seem to have 

 the greatest influence on farm profits in that locality. 



It was found that specialized farms, those of the tobacco, stock, or 

 dairy type, moderately diversified, are the most efficient in this region 

 and that the general mixed farms, more highly diversified, are the 

 least efficient. Thus, while diversity has a vital relation to profits 

 here as elsewhere, it would appear that in the bluegrass region these 

 spcialized farms have found in moderate diversity the right degree 

 for maximum profit. 



Of the factors which determine profit, size of business was found 

 to have the greatest weight, with utilization of pasture and yield of 



64453°— Bull. 482—17 1 



