I 



FARM MANAGEMENT PRACTICE OF CHESTER COUNTY, PA. 51 



poultry of considerable importance, while potatoes, hogs, and corn 

 constitute considerable, though less important, sources of direct in- 

 come. Fruit is the only other enterprise generally found on these 

 farms, and in nearly all cases it is a very small enterprise, designed 

 principally for the production of home supplies. We have also found 

 that the sources of income on these Chester County farms differ 

 radically from those in certain other sections of the country. While 

 some of these differences may be due merely to local customs inherited 

 from the preceding generation of farmers, there are also deeper un- 

 derlying causes. 



The principal factors which determine the distribution of farm 

 enterprises are climate, soil, and local conditions with reference to 

 market demands, market prices, and the character and amount of the 

 available supply of labor. These are the factors which, in general, 

 determine whether or not a given enterprise is adapted to a specific 

 locality, but it does not at all follow that because an enterprise is 

 adapted to the conditions prevailing generally in a region it is 

 adapted to every farm in that region, for the business conditions on 

 individual farms may make neighboring farms adapted to quite dif- 

 ferent types of farming. We have already seen that some of the types 

 of farming found in Chester County can be made quite successful if 

 the farm is large enough. This is especially true of steer feeding. In 

 some localities the distance to a shipping point may have considerable 

 effect on the types of enterprises which each individual farmer should 

 select. The amount of labor available to the farmer, the amount of 

 capital at his disposal, and the character and amount of the equip- 

 ment already on the farm also have an important influence in de- 

 termining the enterprises wdiich the individual farmer should attempt 

 to maintain. Unless, therefore, the conditions which determine what 

 enterprises are adapted to the region as a whole limit the profitable 

 enterprises to a very small number, we should expect to find con- 

 siderable diversity in types of farming. In Chester County the en- 

 terprises adapted to the general region are comparatively few in 

 number, though more numerous than is the case in some other sections 

 of this country. It happens also that the one enterprise which seems 

 best at home here, namely, dairying, can be successfully conducted, if 

 right methods are used, on farms varying greatly in size. For these 

 reasons we find greater uniformity in the type of farming in this 

 locality than is generally the case in most parts of the country. There 

 is considerable diversity in the local agriculture, but it is a diversity 

 which is characteristic of the individual farm and does not in general 

 result in classes of farms devoted to different types of farming. 



Table XXV gives the list of enterprises which are of any impor- 

 tance in this region, together with the factors which are favorable and 



