10 BULLETIN 713, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
-emphasize the need of standards of organization and practice that 
are approximately correct for safe and Betis farming, based on 
the experience of successful farmers. 
In asking such questions as these the size of the farm is in mind as 
a basis for calculating these various factors. In some sections, 
however, as in the cotton belt, the number of mules or horses avail- 
able is the basis for organizing the farm business. In sections where 
dairying is the prevailing type of farming the number of dairy cows 
is the basis. In most sections, however, where diversified farming is 
the rule and where the land is comparatively high in price, the basis 
of farm organization is the size of the farm rather than the number 
of work stock or dairy stock needed to equip it. Thus, in this locality, 
where differences in types of farming are based largely on the 
amount of land available for a farm, and where diversified farming 
is the rule, the amount of improved land available should be taken 
as the basis of farm organization. 
No farm organization, however well it may measure up to stand- 
ards based on the experience of the best farmers, can prove successful 
if the operator is not efficient, if yields are much below the average 
of the community, if prices of cash crops should be abnormally low, 
or if live stock should not show a substantial profit on feed con- 
sumed. On the other hand, the farm organized on the basis of the 
experience of the best farmers and operated by an industrious and 
efficient manager could hardly fail.to be successful with average 
yields and prices. 
STANDARD YIELDS AND FARM VALUES FOR IMPORTANT CROPS 
AND PRODUCTIVE ANIMALS. 
Table I shows the average yields and farm values for important 
crops on the most successful 140 farms in 1915, also the estimated nor- 
mal yields and farm values of these crops. The figures given for nor- 
mal yields are based on estimates of 20 to 25 farmers in the locality. 
In estimating normal farm values the 1915 Yearbook of the United 
States Department of Agriculture was consulted, and account also 
was taken of local conditions and the range of prices prevailing for 
several years past, during which time the writer has been familiar 
with farm conditions in this region. 
It will be observed that the yields for wheat and corn were abnor- 
mally low in 1915, the year to which the farm records applied. The 
yields for tobacco and hay, however, were higher that year than the 
normal, which to a large extent compensated for low yields of cereals. 
Farm values for live stock and live-stock products were generally 
higher in 1915 than the normal. This is shown in Table II. The 
normal values were estimated on the basis of prices ruling in the 
