FARMING ON CUT-OVER LANDS. 11 



80.1 and 100 acres, with an average of 88.9 acres, gives much better 

 results. In this group the farmer receives $195 a year for his labor, 

 and the farmer and his family receive $467 a year for their labor. 

 If free of debt, they have a family income of $939 on which to live. 

 While there are individual farms of all sizes that are financially 

 successful, this is the first group of farms in the series that has large 

 enough area under cultivation to produce satisfactory average 

 incomes. The next group with greater tillable area shows larger 

 net returns, and the last group has an average tillable area of 179.5 

 acres, a labor income of $495 and a family income of $1,586. These 

 would be considered very satisfactory incomes for any agricultural 

 section of the country. None of the farms studied in this district 

 was too large in tillable acres. Briefly stated, the figures show that 

 for the northern cut-over district a farm with 50 acres of rich land 

 under cultivation usually produces a good living for a family of 

 average size, and that 90 acres of rich land under cultivation is a 

 fair foundation for business success. 



Figure 6 shows in graphic form the data given in Table 2. 



The curves show that the incomes advance about in proportion to 

 the increase of tillable area, except that the incomes advance very 

 slowly as the cultivated area is increased from 50 to 70 acres. The 

 slow gam m income at that stage is doubtless due to the fact that 

 there is a transition period between the small farm and the large 

 farm where labor and equipment are used less efficiently than on farms 

 that are either below or above that size. 



UNIMPROVED LAND. 



Some of the more important problems of the cut-oTer district are 

 in connection with the utilization and development of the unim- 

 proved farm area. Table 1 shows that the average size of farm in 

 the district is 108 acres and that approximately one-half this area 

 is tillable and about one-half is nontiUable. Table 4 shows that the 

 group of farms having less than 40 acres tillable made minus labor 

 incomes and only the gi-oups havmg 80 acres or more of tillable land 

 made a labor income above $100. This table further shows that in 

 the first group the average farm area is only 60 acres, about one-half 

 of which is tillable. The second group has an average farm area of 

 77 acres with less than one-half tillable. Both these groups made 

 minus labor incomes. These figures bring out the fact that more 

 of the unimproved farm area should bo brought under cultivation. 

 Indeed this is the most logical way of increasing the farm business 

 since it not only increases the earning capacity of the farm but at 

 the same time cuts down the burden of unimproved land the farm 

 must carry. 



