FARM MANAGEMENT PEACTICE OF CHESTEB COUNTY, PA. J 7 



CROPS. 



The type of cropping system which is most general in Chester 

 County consists of a rotation beginning with corn the first year. 

 The second year is usually divided between corn and potatoes or 

 oats and potatoes or corn and oats or corn, potatoes, and oats. Wheat 

 occupies the third year, and is followed by grass, usually timothy 

 and clover, which is ordinarily cut for hay for two years before the 

 sod is broken up for corn, though local practice differs considerably 

 as to the number of years the grass is left down. There are, of 

 course, numerous modifications of this general scheme. These will 

 be discussed later. The actual acreage of each of the more important 

 crops .on the 378 farms operated by their owners is shown graphically 

 in figure 5. The same data are shown in percentages in Table III. 

 Hay is seen to occupy twice the area of corn, its closest competitor. 

 Wheat is third, occupying 18.2 per cent of the total crop area : oats 











HUNDREDS OF AC R E 5 















CROPS 



8 



16 



24 



32 40 48 



56 



64 



11 



60 



88 





HAY 

 CORN 



WHt»T 









































OATS 























POTATOE S 























FRUIT 























TRUCKS 























Fig. 5. — Acres of the more important crops on 378 Chester County (Pa.) farms operated by 



their owners. 



are fourth, with 6.4 per cent, and potatoes are fifth, with 6 per cent. 

 Fruit is grown on 2.5 per cent of the cropped land. In this survey 

 no account was taken of kitchen gardens. These probably occupied 

 about one-third as much land as the orchards. The farmers of this 

 region grow garden vegetables very generally in sufficient quantity 

 for home use. The truck-crop acreage given in Table III repre- 

 sents commercial truck crops, which are seen to be of relatively 

 small importance in this area. 



That the area included in this survey is fairly representative of 

 Chester County as a whole is shown by the census data for the 

 entire county given in the third column of Table III. Potatoes and 

 hay are a little more important in this area than in the county as a 

 whole, while oats are somewhat less important. Commercial truck 

 crops, special crops, especially tobacco, and miscellaneous crops occur 

 somewhat more frequently in other parts of the county than they do 

 in the locality of the survey. 

 14138°— Bull. 341—16 2 



