24 BULLETIN 482, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



RELATION OF DIVERSITY TO PROFITABLE FARMING. 



The principal advantages which diversity may secure are: (1) The 

 adaptation of enterprises to the physical conditions of the farm as in 

 cases where parts of the area are hilty or stony or where there are 

 differences in soil; (2) the maintenance of soil fertility, as effected 

 by having a legume in the rotation, or a blue-grass sod; (3) the 

 profitable distribution of labor (other things equal, the system that 

 utilizes available labor best has the advantage) ; (4) adaptation to 

 market conditions. Market prices fluctuate often to the extent of 

 causing serious loss where attention is centered on any one enterprise. 

 Diversity steadies the income of the farm and makes it more de- 

 pendable. 



Tablk XIX. — Relation of type of farm to diversity. 



Type of farm. 



Number 



of 

 records. 



Per cent 



receipts 



from 



crops. 



Per cent 



receipts 



from 



livestock. 



Per cent 

 receipts 



from 

 tobacco. 



Diversity 

 index. 





31 

 61 

 36 

 31 

 18 

 10 



80 



55 



68 



37 



18.3 



.12 



19 

 41 

 31 

 59 

 81 

 87 



65 

 43 

 27 

 21 



2.3 





3.4 





4.6 





4.1 





2.8 





7 



2.0 







Diversity is closely related to the size of farm. In the bluegrass 

 region it would not be profitable even on the larger and cheaper 

 farms to have all of the farm area in bluegrass, neither would it be 

 profitable on small, high-priced farms to cultivate the entire area in 

 tobacco. Through long experience the farmers have arrived at a 

 distribution which, on the whole, has proved profitable under the 

 conditions prevailing. (See Table VII.) 



The degree of diversity varies on different types of farms, as shown 

 in Table XIX. Here it will be observed that the tobacco type and 

 the stock type have the lowest diversity, while the intermediate types 

 have the highest diversity. The tobacco and the stock type each 

 emphasizes a single enterprise. The typical tobacco farm is rela- 

 tively small in size, and in order to have a business of adequate mag- 

 nitude the percentage of crop area in tobacco must be relatively large 

 and the pasture area relatively small. A small area of pasture tends 

 to decrease the receipts from stock. On the other hand, the dis- 

 tinctly stock farm is relatively large in size, has a poorer quality of 

 -oil, and is cheaper in price per acre than farms of other types. 

 Usually the topography is quite rolling and sometimes it is stony, a 

 condition which is a handicap in tillage. In such cases it is more 

 advantageous to leaVe a large proportion of the area in pasture and 

 to till only the more level and more productive land. 



