50 BULLETIN 716, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
percentage of the farms keeping sheep. The receipts from the sale 
of sheep and wool were $183 per farm, or one-sixth of the total re- 
ceipts on the large farms, while they were $50 per farm, or one-tenth 
of the total receipts on the small farms. 
On the small farms the percentage of the total receipts from crops 
was much smaller than on the larger farms, the result of a smaller 
percentage of the crop area being in wheat. On the other hand, a 
larger percentage of the farm receipts were obtained from poultry 
on the small farms. 
The small farms used a somewhat higher percentage of the farm 
receipts for expenses in operating the farm business than did the 
larger farms. The proportion of the total expenses for hired labor 
was a little less on the smaller farms, but that for depreciation and 
repairs and for feed was somewhat more. The other items of ex- 
pense represented about the same percentage of the total expenses 
for all groups. 
On the small farms the investment in land was proportionately 
less and that in dwellings more, and at the same time the dwellings 
were not so good as those on the large farms. The real estate was 
valued $2 per acre more on the small farms. 
The farms producing 45 acres or over of crops had a machinery 
investment of $6.11 per crop acre, while those producing 30 acres or 
under of crops had an investment of $7.67 per crop acre. 
QUALITY OF BUSINESS. 
As already shown (p. 48) the group of farms with the smallest 
business (smallest crop acreages) had the lowest average labor in- 
come, and the group with the largest business (largest crop acreages) 
had the highest average labor income. This is usually true of groups 
of farms, but it is not always true of individual farms ; that is, not 
every farm having a large business has a higher income than every 
farm having a small business. In each size group of farms were 
farms with good labor incomes, and farms with poor labor incomes. 
These variations in labor income must have been partly due to some 
other cause or causes than the size of the business, and the most im- 
portant other cause is the quality of business. 
The quality of the farm business either for an individual farm 
or for groups of farms ma}^ be fairly well determined by comparing 
the crop yields per acre and the receipts per animal unit from live 
stock with the corresponding yields or receipts for all the farms 
studied. 
Of course, the character and fertility of the soil and the climatic 
conditions have great influence in determining crop yields, but within 
a restricted area, such as that in Palmer Township, these influences 
