FARM MANACEMFNT PRACTICE OF CHESTER COUNTY, PA. 41 

 Table XVT1I. — I'ereentai/e of income from fruit as related to labor income. 



Per cent of income from fruit 



None. 



1 to 9. 



10 to 19. 



20+. 









261 



95 



112 

 113 



3 



85 



2 





88 







The numbers in the higher groups are too small to be significant, 

 but in both groups the results are considerably below the average. 

 It is quite probable that if cost accounts were kept with these 

 orchards they would appear to be unprofitable. But the small acre- 

 age requires little care, and the time devoted to them is seldom taken 

 from more profitable endeavor. At any rate, the figures, both as 

 to acreage and as to proportion of income, show clearly that on those 

 farms on which fruit constitutes one of the minor enterprises the 

 profits are greater than where it is entirely absent. At the same time 

 they indicate that the proper position of this crop is that of a de- 

 cidedly minor enterprise. We have here what appears to be a good 

 illustration of the principle that within certain limits it pays well 

 to produce home supplies and to conduct a properly diversified 

 business. 



Truck crops. — As previously stated, kitchen gardens were not 

 taken into account in this survey. Other studies, however, have 

 shown that the farmers of this general region almost universally 

 grow a liberal supply of vegetables for home use. Situated as this 

 area is, not far from several large cities, it would naturally be 

 expected to find considerable development of commercial truck 

 growing here. But such is not the case. Only 23 of the 378 farms 

 derived any income from this source. This general region is one in 

 which commercial truck farming is perhaps as highly developed as 

 it is anywhere in this country, but the amount of vegetables grown 

 is so vast that the supply is practically always greater than the 

 demand, except during the early part of the season for each of the 

 various truck crop products. It is therefore only those who can 

 reach the market early who find the business profitable, and to do this 

 requires a light sandy soil that warms up rapidly in the spring and 

 thus conduces to earliness. The soils of this area are in the main 

 heavy, and hence truck crops mature late in the season. Here and 

 there, however, is a farm with more or less warm sandy land, and a 

 few of these are devoted more or less to this type of farming. Some 

 of them deliver their product by wagon to Wilmington, Del., a 

 distance of 15 miles from the center of the survey area. Of the 

 farms conducting a trucking business, only two have more than 20 

 per cent of their acreage devoted to it. 



Twentjr-three farms derived a portion of their income from the 

 sale of vegetables. Three of them sold a small quantity of such 



