FARM ORGANIZATION IN SOUTHERN ARIZONA. 



25 



successful as a general proposition than those farmers who sold little 

 or no hay. The effect of increasing percentage receipts from hay 

 on farm income and labor income is shown in Table IX: 



Table IX. — Depressing effect on farm income and labor income of increasing percentage 

 of receipts from sales of hay, 1913 to 1915. 



Per cent of receipts from hay. 



Number 

 of farms. 



Averago 

 percent- 

 age re- 

 ceipts 

 from hay. 



Average 

 area. 



Number 

 failing 



to make 

 8 per 

 cent. 



Average 

 receipts. 



Average 



farm 

 income. 



Average 



labor 

 income. 



to 5 



327 

 128 



74 

 41 

 56 



0.6 

 12.3 

 33.9 

 53.4 



77.6 



Acres. 

 119 

 112 

 78 

 100 

 105 



66 

 36 

 24 

 15 

 20' 



85, 157 

 4,335 

 2,985 

 3,480 

 3, 931 



83, 104 

 2, 691 

 1,800 

 1,913 

 2,222 



81,079 



5 1 to 25 



734 



25-1 to 45 



470 



45 1 to 65 



18 



65 1 to 100 



476 







SALE OF PASTURE. 



The sale of pasture is an important side line on nearly all hay 

 farms, especially those in Salt River and Yuma Valleys. A consider- 

 able crop of " aftermath" which grows after the last cutting of hay 

 in the season is usually marketed in the form of pasture. On the 

 heavier soils irrigation during the hottest part of midsummer causes 

 a growth of wild grasses known as " water grass" to spring up in 

 the fields, which distinctly checks the growth of the alfalfa. The 

 midsummer crop is also injured more or less by worms produced by 

 a common butterfly. For these reasons it is often more profitable 

 to market this crop as pasture than to cut it for hay. More or less 

 hay is always damaged by the local showers of the midsummer rainy 

 season, and by feeding this hay to cattle along with green forage it 

 often may be marketed when otherwise there would be no demand 

 for it. 



The pasture is paid for by the cattle feeders at a stated price per 

 head per month. The price varies from being occasionally as low 

 as $1 per head per month to $2.50 per month. The higher prices 

 prevail during the winter season, when usually some second class 

 hay is fed along with the pasture. Of the farms studied there were 

 but 13 upon which the sale of pasture was of sufficient importance 

 to make it a 1-eading enterprise. Their average size was 150 acres, 

 and the average receipts, farm income, and labor income were 13,673, 

 $2,454, and $417 respectively.. These results are slightly lower than 

 those obtained when the sale of hay was a leading enterprise. 



ALFALFA SEED. 



The production of alfalfa seed for the market is a leading enterprise 

 in Yuma Valley and in what is known as the "Buckeye" country, an 

 isolated strip of irrigated land on the Gila River below Salt River 

 Valley, having the town of Buckeye at its center. The enterprise is 



