40 BULLETIN 341, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



It is clearly indicated here that under the conditions prevailing 

 during the year of the survey the most profitable practice is to grow 

 a little more hay than is needed for feed on the farm. It will be 

 noticed, however, that the number of farmers in the second most 

 profitable group is somewhat larger than in any other. The price 

 of hay, due to a shortage in yield, was rather high during 1911, the 

 average sale price being $22.12. These high prices probably induced 

 a larger number of farmers to sell hay than is ordinarily the case. 



Fruit. — Of the 378 farms here under consideration, 315 reported 

 some fruit acreage, the average percentage area being 2.5. On only 

 10 farms did this acreage exceed 10 per cent. In by far the larger 

 number of cases it was less than 5. Fruit is thus very generally grown, 

 but almost entirely for home use. Commercial fruit growing does 

 not appear to be adapted to the conditions prevailing in this locality. 

 Just why this is the case has not been determined, but it is probable 

 that the character of the soil is the main factor. The topography is 

 also less broken than it is in most of the leading orchard districts, 

 thus giving rather poor air drainage and exposing the early bloom- 

 ing varieties of fruit to danger from untimely spring frosts. 



The relation of fruit acreage to labor income is shown in Table 

 XVII. The 63 farmers who reported no fruit trees on their farms 

 made labor incomes 9 per cent below the general average. 



Table XVII. — Acres in frtiit as related to labor incomes. 





None. 



lto5. 











63 

 91 



306 

 103 



9 





48 







Those having 1 to 5 acres of fruit made labor incomes 5 per cent 

 above the average, while the 9 farms having a larger acreage made 

 less than half the average labor income. . 



While fruit occupied an average of 1.35 acres, or 2.5 per cent of 

 the crop area on each of these farms, the income from the sale of 

 fruit was only seven-tenths of 1 per cent of the total receipts, as 

 shown in Table VIII. In most cases the receipts are only 1 or 2 

 per cent of the total farm receipts. In only five cases did the per- 

 centage exceed 10, the maximum being 28 per cent. 



The relation of income from fruit and labor income is shown in 

 Table XVIII. A majority of the farms sold no fruit, but their 

 labor incomes were below the average. A large number derived 

 from 1 to 9 per cent of their income from this source, and made labor 

 incomes 13 per cent above the average. 



