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



Underlying and closely related to size of business and type of farm 

 are the factors of diversity, utilization of man and horse labor, dis- 

 tribution of crops and live stock from the standpoint of the advan- 

 tageous utilization of field crops and pasture area, and the distribu- 

 tion of capital. 



The farmer may increase the size of business either by buying or 

 renting more land or by increasing the acreage of tobacco, an in- 

 tensive crop. There are many farms 300 to 500 acres in size which 

 do not show as large a business as many other farms 100 to 200 acres 

 in size which have a relatively large percentage of area in tobacco 

 and a relatively small percentage of area in bluegrass. The tobacco 

 crop furnishes work for a large number of laborers and the returns 

 per acre are correspondingly large. 



The type of farm that does not seem to pay here is the general 

 mixed type. Only 34 per cent of the farms of this type could be 

 counted as distinctly successful, while the stock-with-tobacco type 

 had about 58 per cent successful. The dairy type, of which there 

 were only 10, showed TO per cent successful, with a higher average 

 labor income and higher efficiency than any other type. Of the 

 other three types, about 50 per cent of the farms were successful. 



The general mixed type is evidently organized on the wrong basis 

 to be profitable. It has about the same proportion of its receipts 

 from tobacco as the stock-with-tobacco type, but the percentage area 

 in tobacco is very much smaller, only about 4.4 per cent, while the 

 stock-with-tobacco type has an average of about 8 per cent of its area 

 in tobacco. With the exception of tobacco, there seems to have been 

 a failure to dispose of the crops raised, either by marketing them 

 profitably or by utilizing them to advantage through live stock. 

 Many with large farms and large capital seem to have been satisfied 

 with bare interest on their investment, which was adequate for a 

 comfortable living. These men made no effort to make the farm a 

 business success. The tobacco area and much of the area of other 

 crops on such farms was in most cases cultivated by cropper labor, 

 which relieves the owner of much responsibility. 



Profitable farming here hinges primarily upon keeping a proper 

 balance between field crops and bluegrass, which is especially adapted 

 to the soil and is a great factor in keeping up its fertility and put- 

 ting it into a favorable condition for other crops, especially tobacco. 



The soil of the bluegrass region is a heavy clay loam with a sticky 

 clay subsoil. It should not be worked when in a wet condition, and 

 during the naturally dry summers and fall it is difficult to plow. To 

 emphasize field-crop farming it would be necessary to plant and 

 work the soil more or less during the whole of the growing season. 

 In the areas of the black loamy soils of the Middle West this usually 



