FARM MANAGEMENT PRACTICE OF CHESTER COUNTY, PA. 45 



When one of these enterprises is given a magnitude greater or 

 smaller than this the farm profits become less. This does not appear 

 to be the case with the dairy enterprise on the average farm. Table 

 XX shows that the average labor income of each group of farms 

 deriving 20 per cent to 90 per cent of their income from dairy prod- 

 ucts is above the general average of the community. 



Table XX. 



-Percentage of income from dairy products as related to labor 

 income. 



Per cent of income from dairyt 

 products / 



None. 



fl to 

 19. 



10 to 



19. 



20 to 



29. 



30 to 

 39. 



40 to 



49. 



50 to 

 59. 



60 to 



69. 



70 to 

 79. 



80 to 

 89. 



}'.»o+ 





31 

 43 



26 

 94 



26 

 82 



65 

 114 



73 

 103 



71 

 109 



47 

 102 



19 

 130 



11 

 103 



7 

 101 



2 





55 







It is considerably lower on those farms deriving less than 20 per 

 cent of their income from this source. These figures indicate that 

 under the conditions prevailing in this region the dairy business may 

 be made profitable whatever position it may occupy on the farm, pro- 

 vided, of course, the cows be of good quality. This is the only enter- 

 prise in this region of which this is true. 



It is to be inferred from these results that if the cows are of high 

 quality it is relatively unimportant whether the farmer has several 

 other more or less important sources of income. With cows of poor 

 or ordinary quality it becomes increasingly important that the busi- 

 ness be diversified ; that is, that other sources of income be provided. 

 This conclusion is strongly reinforced by the results given in Table 

 XLIV, in which it is shown that with cows producing less than $50 

 worth of product annually the larger the herd the less the profit, while 

 with cows producing more than $100 worth of product the larger the 

 herd the greater the profit. 



The failure of Table XX to show a particular percentage of income 

 from dairy products to be more profitable than any other may be due 

 to the fact that the quality of the cows on the various farms is highly 

 variable, and, as will be shown later, the producing capacity of the 

 cows is one of the very most important factors of profit on these 

 farms. If the labor income could be further adjusted so as to elimi- 

 nate the effect of variation in quality of cows, it might be found that 

 there is an optimum status of the dairy industry here. It is also 

 practically certain that if all the cows were as good as the best the 

 most profitable percentage of income from this source would be 

 higher than if the cows were all of poor or medium quality. 



Types of dairying. — Table XXI shows the relative importance of 

 the various types of dairying in the Chester County survey area. 

 The farms here represented as selling creamery milk differ from those 



