

FARM MANAGEMENT PRACTICE OF CHESTER COUNTY, PA. 53 



The data obtained about the details of the hothouse business in this 

 locality were not sufficient to permit a more detailed consideration of 

 these special farms in this bulletin. 



MAGNITUDE OF THE FARM BUSINESS. 



The magnitude of the farm business may be measured in a number 

 of ways. In comparing farms where the land is of similar character 

 and of the same price per acre, the magnitude of the farm business 

 is quite closely proportional to the sum of the interest on the capital 

 invested, current expenses, depreciation, and wages for the operator. 

 But this method would not be accurate in dealing with farms on 

 which the land differs widely in price but not in yielding power. 

 If the land is very high priced, a given amount of business might 

 require a very large amount of capital, while with low-priced land 

 the same amount of business will require much less capital. 



In most farm-management surveys the land of the different farms 

 included is at least comparable in price, or where this is not the case 

 the differences in many cases are due to difference in the real value 

 of the land for farm purposes. Under such conditions it is fairly 

 easy to establish a basis on which to measure the magnitude of the 

 farm business. The problem is much more difficult when a com- 

 parison is to be made between farms in different regions in which 

 the economic conditions, especially land prices, are widely different. 



In dealing with the farms of a limited region where the various 

 types of farming do not differ markedly in the amount of labor re- 

 quired in comparison with other expenses, perhaps the most accu- 

 rate measure of magnitude is the sum of the area in crops and the 

 crop area equivalent of the area in pasture. But it is not always 

 easy to determine how many acres of pasture are equivalent to one 

 acre of field crops from the standpoint of feed produced. If the 

 comparison to be made, however, includes farms on which the per- 

 centage of pasture land varies widely, it is necessary to use some such 

 basis as that just mentioned in order to get a fair comparison of 

 magnitude. 



In the area here under consideration the proportion of land in 

 pasture, especially when the farms are considered in groups, varies 

 within narrow limits. In such cases the area in crops alone gives 

 a. fairly satisfactory measure of magnitude, since it is proportional 

 to the sum of the crop and pasture area. 



In many localities a considerable proportion of every farm is 

 made up of rough land, frequently occupied by timber, and in such 

 regions the proportion of the farm thus occupied may vary greatly. 

 In such a case it is evident that the size of the farm — that is, the 

 number of acres in the whole farm — is utterly useless as a measure 



