80 



BULLETIN 341, U. S. DEPAKTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



probable that these men really worked at productive labor more 

 than a hundred days during the year, and that many of them did 

 more work on some of their crops than was profitable, for their aver- 

 age yields are above the average of the community. (See next to 

 last column of table.) They also probably spent too much of their 

 time doing things that had no relation to the farm income. That 

 these men were poor managers is shown by the fact that their cows 

 brought them ony $27.60 per head for the year's product. 



Table XLVI. — The relation of productive work units per man to profits and 

 other factors in farming on 378 owner farms, Chester County. 



Productive work 

 units per man. 



Average 

 per man. 



Number 

 farms. 



Average 

 size. 



Produc- 

 tive work 

 units per 

 horse. 



Labor 

 income. 



Receipts 

 per cow. 



Crop 

 index. 



Labor 

 income of 

 operator 

 per day 



of pro- 

 ductive 



labor. 





83 

 126 

 176 



222 

 272 

 336 



448 



22 

 62 

 114 

 102 

 49 

 23 

 a 6 



Acres. 

 58 

 72 

 90 

 96 

 108 

 107 

 101 



38.5 

 45.2 

 55.8 

 59.1 

 62.7 

 63.2 

 66.7 



$181 



366 



625 



959 



1,147 



1,535 



1,833 



$27. 60 

 46.80 

 72.00 

 78.00 

 78.50 

 77.00 

 83.00 



103 

 102 

 98 

 105 

 100 

 109 

 107 



$2.18 



100 to 149 



2.90 



150 to 199 



3.55 



200 to 249 



4.32 



250 to 299 



4.22 



300 to 399 



4.57 





4.09 







Average 



201 



378 



90 



78.3 



789 



68.20 



100 



3.93 



a One farmer out of the six met with serious loss for which he was not responsible, 

 thus causing a minus labor income of $49. The average labor income of the other five 

 was $2,209, with an average wage of $4.93 per work unit. 



At the other extreme we have 23 farms on which there was an 

 average of 336 productive work units done per year by each person 

 employed. This does not necessarily mean that each person actually 

 worked 336 days in the year at productive labor, but it does mean 

 that the work accomplished was equivalent to this many ordinary 

 days' work. The owners of these 23 farms made, on the average, 

 $4.57 wages for each productive work unit, as compared with the 

 $2.18 made by the first group. There were six farms (see next to 

 last line of the table) on which the amount of productive labor 

 accomplished averaged 448 ordinary days' labor per year for each 

 man employed. These farms were unusually well managed, and little 

 time was wasted at unproductive work. The owner of one of the 

 six had the misfortune of having contagious abortion get into his 

 herd and had a minus labor income of $49 for the year, but the 

 other five made an average labor income of $2,209, or $4.93 per unit 

 of productive work done. 



The income per cow is also much larger on these farms where each 

 workman accomplished a large amount. As would naturally be 

 expected, the average productive work units per horse also increases 

 with increase of work units per man (see fifth column of table). 



