FAEM MANAGEMENT IN LENAWEE COUNTY^ MICH. 17 



The farms which show the higher labor incomes are making from 

 10 to 40 per cent of their total income from the sale of crops, and it 

 will be noted also that most of the farms in the list fall between these 

 limits. Here, again, there is a direct relation between labor income 

 and size of farm. Yields, too, as indicated by crop index, are some- 

 what higher on the more profitable farms. It is interesting to observe, 

 however, that on the farms where more than 40 or from 40 to 50 per 

 cent of the income is derived from the sale of crops, even with the 

 average size of farms remaining about the same and the yield of 

 crops slightly better, the average labor income falls off materially. 

 The results given in both Tables IX and X can at best only serve as 

 a very general guide in the organization of the farms of different 

 types and sizes under average conditions, which exist normally in 

 the area surveyed and in nearby sections. 



SPECIAL FARMS. 



In this region, as in most others, an occasional farm is found 

 which departs widely from the type which investigations show to be 

 that best adapted to the average conditions of the area, and yet is 

 a pronounced success. 



An example of this was found in a farm located on the heavier 

 type of soil in Lenawee County on which aKalfa is easily grown. 

 About 40 per cent of the crop area was in corn, 10 per cent in a 

 nurse crop for alfalfa, and 50 per cent in alfalfa. In the winter 

 season a large number of western lambs were fed. From a financial 

 standpoint the results on this farm are decidedly satisfactory. 



The management of such a farm, however, requires considerable 

 skill and business ability. One of the principal difficulties arises 

 from the fact that the labor is unequally distributed throughout the 

 year. When alfalfa occupies the place in a farm system that it does 

 in this instance it is necessary to provide a separate equipment in 

 teams and implements and a separate group of men to take care of 

 the alfalfa. Hence the equipment and crews needed during the 

 summer months on such a farm are about double those demanded by 

 the system which the farmers here have worked out by experience. 

 Only about one half of the labor required can be given employment 

 throughout the year. The other half is needed only in the summer 

 and from the nature of the case must be temporary labor, which is 

 usually unsatisfactory. If some means could be devised to give 

 profitable winter employment to the surplus labor needed during the 

 sunmier season, this system would work without any special diffi- 

 culties other than those attending the fluctuation in the price of pro- 

 ductive live stock to which the crop products are fed. To be success- 

 ful with such a system, however, the farmer must be an expert 

 55504°— 18— Bull. 694 3 



