52 



BULLETIN 341, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 





those which are unfavorable to each. This table is almost self- 

 explanatory. It will be noted that dairying is handicapped by but one 

 unfavorable condition and that one which can be neutralized by 

 breeding up the dairy herds to meet the high price of hay and grain 

 with a maximum milk production. 



Table XXV. 



-Some favorable and unfavorable conditions affecting types of 

 farming, Chester County. 



Enterprises. 



Favorable conditions. 



Unfavorable conditions. 



Dairy. 



Hay 



Potatoes . 

 Wheat... 



Poultry. 



Hothouse products . 

 Hogs 



Good markets; excellent pastures; corn; 

 hay; size of farms; character of labor; 

 gives winter employment. 



High prices; usefulness as feed; soil; 

 climate. 



Nearness to markets; climate favorable; 

 distributes labor. 



Soil; nurse crop for grasses; seasonal 

 distribution of labor; furnishes bed- 

 ding. 



Excellent markets; soil; climate; pro- 

 duction of home supplies; utilization 

 of spare time and waste materials. 



Nearby great city; provide winter work 



Good market; pastures 



Corn. 



Truck crops. 

 Fruit 



Good market; usefulness as feed; soil; 

 climate. 



Good market; home supplies 



do 



Beef cattle. 

 Sheep 



Good market; crops; pastures; climate. 

 do 



Oats. 



Value as feed. 



High price of hay and grain. 



Short season of employment. 



Prices variable; low yields; soil. 



Small farms; western competition; small 

 profit per acre. 



Competition from small flocks everywhere. 



Diseases; danger of overproduction. 

 High price of concentrates; danger from 



cholera; competition with dairying; 



lack of skim milk. 

 Furnishes no profitable employment from 



July to late September. 

 Competition of near-by soils better adapted. 

 Soil (?); topography (?); fluctuation of 



production and prices. 

 High price of feed; smallness of farms; 



competition with dairying. 

 High price of feed; smallness of farms; 



parasites; dogs; competition with dairy-' 



ing; small per cent of nonarable land. 

 Climate; small value per acre; poor nurse 



crop. 



Relation of type of farming to distance to market. — The region of 

 this survey is so well provided with transportation facilities that 

 none of the farms is located more than 5 miles from a possible ship- 

 ping point. A tabulation of the various types of farming and their 

 relative frequency at different distances from shipping points shows 

 practically no relations existing in this territory between the two. 

 There are localities, however, in which many farms are located at 

 great distances from a shipping point, and in which this fact becomes 

 an important factor in determining the enterprise best suited to 

 individual farms. 



Special farms. — As previously stated, 27 of the owner farms found 

 in this survey were either wholly or partly devoted to the production 

 of hothouse products, mainly mushrooms. A few farms produced 

 hothouse tomatoes, and two of them derived a large per cent of their 

 income from carnations. For the year of this survey (1911) these 

 special farms made very satisfactory profits, considerably larger than 

 farms of other types in this region, but it would be ruinous from the 

 standpoint of profits for the farmers of this region generally to 

 undertake a hothouse business. Overproduction would be inevitable. 



