FARM MANAGEMENT PRACTICE OF CHESTER COUNTY, PA. 33 



half ago the price of corn rose about 50 per cent in this country, 

 and has remained at this level ever since. It is probable that under 

 the old conditions the farmers of Chester County had come to the 

 proper acreage of this crop, but with corn at its new high level of 

 prices a larger percentage of corn acreage would be justified. Census 

 data thus show that the farmers are slowly responding to the slight 

 economic forces tending to force them in the direction of higher 

 profit. The data of Table X indicate that the direction in which 

 they are moving, as shown by census returns, is actually in the direc- 

 tion of higher profit, while the opinion of the best local farmers agrees 

 both with the indications of Table X and of the census returns. 



Another instance in which local practice is not consistent with the 

 highest profits, as indicated in Table XIV, relates to the percentage 

 of oats acreage. This table indicates that those farmers who grow 

 no oats make much higher profits than those who devote a portion 

 of their land to this crop. The best local farmers agree that the oat 

 crop is not profitable here, and 140 of the 378 owners grow no oats. 

 Furthermore, census statistics show that the relative acreage of oats 

 in this county is slowly decreasing. 



The other case relates to the percentage of potato acreage and the 

 proportion of the farm income derived from this crop. In both 

 cases the data collected in the survey show that the more important 

 the potato crop on the farm the higher the profit, and the tabulations 

 indicate that the limit of profit in this direction is not reached, by 

 local practice. Yet most of the farmers of this region state that they 

 do not consider potatoes distinctly a profitable crop. They grow 

 them largely to fill in certain vacant places in the labor schedule. 

 But during the year to which this survey relates these farmers sold 

 their potatoes at an average price of $1.04 a bushel. The inference 

 from the data is that if potatoes sold at this high price regularly, 

 the percentage of acreage devoted to potatoes in this region should be 

 much larger than it is now. The fact is, however, the average price 

 of potatoes here, as elsewhere, is very close to the cost of production, 

 and there is every reason for believing that the farmers are right 

 in their opinions concerning the value of this crop. 



The fact that the tabulations to be discussed presently lead to con- 

 clusions which are thus in agreement with the opinions of the more 

 progressive of the local farmers, even ivhen these conclusions are not 

 in agreement with average local practice, and the further fact that 

 good reasons can be given for the changes called for by the tables, 

 give great weight to the conclusions drawn from the assembled data. 



While data are not at hand to prove it, it seems probable that the 



status which a crop should occupy for best results in a system of 



farming would depend on the yield of that crop per acre. A crop 



which yields well on a given farm compared with other crops should 



14138°— Bull. 341—16 3 



