22 



BULLETIN 482, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the amount of live stock kept. The stock-with-tobacco and the dis- 

 tinctly stuck types show higher yields than other common types. 

 The fact that the dairy farms show a low yield of corn can not be 

 explained unless by the fact that the records were few. The crop 

 index would show that the productiveness of the farm increases with 

 increasing importance of live stock and decreases with increasing 

 importance of tobacco. 



IMPORTANCE OF RIGHT AMOUNT OF LIVE STOCK ON THE FARM. 



The fact that about half of the area of these farms is kept in blue- 

 grass pastures makes the full utilization of such pasture a matter of 

 great importance. The relation that this bears to efficiency is shown in 

 Tables XVI and XVII. 



Table XVI. — Relation of utilization of pasture area to efficiency. 



Pasture per animal unit. 



Number 



of 

 records. 



Average 

 number 

 acres of 

 pasture 

 per ani- 

 mal unit. 



Average 

 farm 



acres per 



animal 



unit. 



Feed cost 

 per ani- 

 mal unit. 1 



Labor 

 income. 





42 

 49 

 38 

 17 

 25 



1.4 

 2.5 

 3.6 



4.4 



7.0 



4 

 5 

 9 



8 

 10 



S31 

 37 

 38 



45 



58 



SI 114 





960 





711 





311 





—93 







1 The feed cost here calculated included the value of pasture, which ranged from $2.25 to $5 per acre 

 and averaged about S3.50 per acre. 



Table XVII. — Relation of farm acres per animal unit to crop index and labor 

 income on 121 farms similar in type. 



Farm acres per animal unit. 



Number 



of 

 records. 



Average 



acres per 



animal 



unit. 



Size of 

 farms. 



Value of 



land 

 per acre. 



Crop 

 index. 



Labor 

 income. 





17 

 36 

 28 

 26 



20 



3.1 

 4.8 

 6.1 

 7.6 



12.0 



Acres. 

 219 

 294 

 303 

 305 

 354 



$138 

 111 



106 

 115 

 109 



115 

 108 

 100 

 98 



100 



si . 381 





1 , 006 





393 

 256 





-214 







In the first of these tables is shown the relation of acres of pasture 

 per animal unit to labor income, in the other the relation of farm 

 acres per animal unit to these factors. The group of farms most 

 heavily stocked has also the highest priced land and shows the 

 highest crop index. This fact may explain why this particular 

 group was able to stock most heavily. The other groups, however, 

 do not show any marked difference in respect to the quality of 

 the land, as shown by the values given and the crop index, and it 

 would naturally be expected that each w 7 ould show about the same effi- 

 ciency in the utilization of pasture area. The failure to maintain 

 efficiency in this regard has evidently been an important factor in' 



