24 



I.I i I I TIN (i"4, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



forks receiving higher prices than those who cure in the windrow 



and handle with the buck rake. Better prices are also obtained by 

 those fanners who protect their hay during storage by the use of 

 hay barns and they also have a smaller percentage of damaged hay. 

 The effect of increasing price on success in hay farming, with 

 yields remaining nearly constant, is shown in Table VIII. 



Table VIII. 



Effect of iiirmisiii'i price per ton on success in hin/ fnrininq in southern 

 Arizona. 



Price per ion. 



Number 



of farms. 



Average 

 price 



per ton. 



Average 



yield 

 per acre. 



Average 

 area. 



Number 

 failing to 

 make S 

 per cent. 



Average 

 receipts. 



Average 



farm 

 income. 



Average 

 labor 

 income. 



J6 90 anil under 



15 

 13 

 29 



17 

 25 



$6.00 

 7.40 

 8.40 

 9.20 



10.70 



Tons. 

 5.3 

 5.9 

 6.0 

 7.1 

 6.9 



Acres. 

 92 



162 

 90 

 75 



101 



S 

 6 



12 

 5 

 1 



$2, 759 

 5,148 

 3,413 

 2,920 

 4,542 



SI, 548 

 2,580 

 1,847 

 1,763 



2,761 



— S23 





wi: 







59.90 



212 

 292 

 944 







When allowance is made for difference in size of farm,, it is seen 

 that both labor income and farm income increase steadily as the 

 price rises from an average of $6 per ton to an average of $10.70 

 per ton, but satisfactory results from the standpoint of labor income 

 are not obtained until the price is above $10 per ton. It also appears 

 from both this table and table VII that high yields and high prices 

 tend somewhat to go together. This is due to the fact that the 

 farmers who take the best care of their fields also use methods which 

 produce a higher quality of hay, and a greater percentage of them 

 hold their hay for higher prices. The last line in Table VII indi- 

 cates that satisfactory results are not obtained until both yield and 

 price approach their maximum. 



These tables, showing the effect of price and yield on the farm 

 income and labor income, tend toward the general conclusion that 

 with economic conditions as they were during the three years 1913, 

 1914, and 1915, hay farming is highly profitable only with both 

 maximum yields and maximum prices. Hay farming was less profit- 

 able than dairying, the feeding of beef cattle, or the production of 

 alfalfa seed, and was less profitable than cotton farming when the 

 price of cotton was 20 cents per pound, as will be shown in tables to 

 be presented farther on. As the percentage of total receipts derived 

 from hay rose there was a general decrease in both farm income 

 and labor income up to the point where the receipts from hay con- 

 stituted from 45 per cent to 65 per cent of the total receipts. This 

 indicates that hay farmers were not generally successful in trying 

 to combine some other enterprise with the production of hay for the 

 market. But while those farmers who devoted all their attention 

 to hay farming were more successful than those who tried to combine 

 it with some enterprise other than cattle, they were still much less 



