22 



BULLETIN 651, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



corn were not so good, as in the group having four or more mules. 

 Evidently a two-mule farm -with the proper acreage per work animal 

 is the best size of farm for this community. 



Table XVII. — Relation of number of work stock per farm, on farms having 17 or more 

 crop acres per work animal, to pcr-ccnt return on investment and yield of crops. 





Number of 

 farms hav- 

 ing 17 or 

 more acres 

 per work 

 auimal. 



Per cent 

 return 

 on invest- 

 ment. 



Yield per acre. 



Number of work stock per farm. 



Net lint 

 cotton. 



Corn. 



1 



17 

 37 

 13 

 17 



3.02 

 4.82 

 3.73 

 3.32 



Pounds. 

 220 

 2-16 

 233 

 242 



Bushels. 

 18.6 



2 



16.6 



3 



17.2 



4 or more 



19.6 







There are several reasons for the relatively high efficiency of the 

 two-mule farm. The operator himself usually works, and he takes 

 more interest in the laborer and the laborer in him than where there 

 is a larger number of laborers on the farm. Frequently, also, the 

 second mule is worked by the opera tor's son, and all the labor is per- 

 formed by a single family. This tends toward increasing the effi- 

 ciency of the labor. Furthermore, the two-mule farms can use two- 

 horse implements, giving a more economical use of man and mule 

 labor. Frequently one man with two mules can do the plowing and 

 cultivating while another man is doing handwork. Also, the work 

 animal is not necessarily idle when the plowhand is doing handwork, 

 as it is on a one-mule farm. 



A high degree of managerial skill is not needed on a two-mule farm, 

 as the business is not complicated. It was noted in this survey that 

 the value of the operator's services, on the average, did not increase 

 until farms using more than two mules were reached, showing that on 

 this size of farm managerial ability was not of such importance as to 

 command a premium. 



COMBINATION OF ENTERPRISES. 



In newly settled areas, where agriculture is largely in the experimental 

 stage, the combination of entcrp rises, or the type of farming, is thefactor 

 that usually has most to do with variation in farm profits. But as 

 the agriculture grows older fewer mistakes are made in this respect, 

 for the farmer who fails to include the most profitable enterprises in 

 the organization and give each its proper weight soon finds his busi- 

 ness so unprofitable that he must either change his methods, quit 

 farming, or be content with a poor living. For this reason, in any old 

 established area where the standard is already high there is not as 

 much opportunity to improve the efficiency of farms by changing or 

 adjusting the combination of enterprises as there is by increasing 



