UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
% BULLETIN No. 716 
"^fiJi^^pJWf Office of the Secretary ^i'A^^Pi'l^" 
S^&*&-ru 
Office of the Secretary 
Contribution from the Office of Farm Management 
W. J. SPILLMAN, Chief 
Washington, D. C. 
PROFESSIONAL PAPER 
September 26, 1918 
A FIVE-YEAR FARM MANAGEMENT SURVEY IN 
PALMER TOWNSHIP, WASHINGTON COUNTY, 
OHIO, 1912-1916. 
By H. W. Hawthorne, Scientific Assistant. 
CONTENTS, 
General nature of the area and the study. ... 1 
Objects of the study 1 
Summary of results 2 
General description of area 3 
Method of study 10 
A five-year study of 25 farms 11 
A study of 73 farms, by size and quality of 
business 47 
GENERAL NATURE OF THE AREA AND THE STUDY. 
This bulletin presents a study of a farm-management survey of 
73 southeastern Ohio hill farms, on 25 of which the survey was con- 
ducted for five successive years, 1912 to 1916, inclusive. 1 All these 
farms are located in one township of Washington County. (See 
fig. 1.) In common with many other areas of the hill country 
drained by the Ohio River, the land here is fairly productive and 
comparatively low priced. The farms are some distance from rail- 
road points, and the wagon roads are hilly and unimproved. 
The findings for this area, though strictly applicable only to the 
farms surveyed, offer valuable suggestions to farmers located on the 
numerous similar areas of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
West Virginia, and Kentucky. 
OBJECTS OF THE STUDY. 
The objects of this study were: 
(1) To ascertain the type of farming followed and the profits 
realized in a long-established agricultural community of the hill 
1 During the first two years the survey was conducted in cooperation with the Ohio 
Agricultural Experiment Station. During the three succeeding years it was conducted 
by the Office of Farm Management alone. 
63263°— 18— Bull. 716 1 
