FARMING IN THE BLUEGRASS REGION. 



23 



lowering general efficiency and thus labor incomes. The farms that 

 have labor incomes below $500 almost invariably show a poor 

 utilization of pasture area. 



It will be observed in Table XVI that the group of farms which 

 furnishes over 5 acres of pasture for each animal unit have nearly 

 twice the feed cost per farm as the group that furnished but 2 acres or 

 less. This increased feed cost would necessarily follow where the 

 acreage used by each animal unit increased with no decrease in the 

 cost per acre of pasture. The group of farms showing lowest effi- 

 ciency in the utilization of pasture area was only slightly lower in 

 general quality than the preceding group and about the same quality 

 as the third group, as indicated by the value of the land. 



CROP YIELD AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN EFFICIENCY. 



A factor of prime importance to profitable farming on these farms 

 is the crop yields. In Table XVIII is shown the relation of crop 

 yield to labor income and farm efficienc}^. The yield of all crops is 

 reduced to a crop index, as explained on page 22, 100 representing 

 the average yield for all the farms giving records. Labor in- 

 come increases directly as the average index of yield of the different 

 groups increases. It is, of course, possible to secure high yields of 

 crops at too great expense, but there is no indication that any of the 

 farms studied here made any error on this point. Practically no com- 

 mercial fertilizer was used. The common method of utilizing manure 

 from animals would generally be regarded as wasteful. 



Table XVIII. — Relation of crop yield to labor income. 



Crop index. 



Number 



of 

 records. 



Size of 

 farm. 



Labor 

 income. 





35 

 37 



47 

 30 

 29 



Acres. 

 303 

 297 

 273 

 362 

 341 



$217 



91 to 100 



519 



101 to 110 



701 



HI to 120 



1,080 



Over 120 



1, 103 







About 65 records were taken on methods of keeping up fertility. 

 These showed that the average farmer hauled to the fields about 14 

 per cent of the manure produced on his farm. In this section, how- 

 ever, feed for live stock is generally hauled to the pastures and scat- 

 tered about on places needing manure. In this way a great deal of 

 manure is returned to the soil. It is estimated that about 50 per 

 cent of the manure produced on these farms is utilized in keeping up 

 soil fertility. The rest is wasted. 



