SEASONAL DISTRIBUTION OF FARM LABOR, 3 
in hauling manure or marketing a crop in winter, and the average 
number of hours worked per day for each month. From the data on 
the distribution and efficiency of labor, factors have been worked 
out by which it is possible to calculate very closely the amount of horse 
and man labor required for any cropping system and for any arrange- 
ment and acreage of crops, provided of course that topography, 
climate, and other conditions approximate those that obtain where 
this study was made. 
The second part of the bulletin illustrates the application of these 
data and the factors derived therefrom in the operation of a typical 
Chester County farm, offering a concrete example that may be used 
to more or less advantage by the farmer who wishes to replan his 
farming system along the lines here suggested. 
LABOR EFFICIENCY AS AFFECTED BY SOIL, TOPOGRAPHY, AND FIELD 
ARRANGEMENT. 
The average efficiency for any crew working tillage machinery 
will vary to some extent with the kind of soil, the size and shape 
of the field, the rough or rolling nature of the field, and the amount 
and distribution of rainfall. These things must be considered, there- 
fore, when the following data are to be used in regions where the 
conditions vary to any considerable extent from those that prevail in 
Chester County. 
The surface soil of the Chester loam, 1 which is mapped on the 
greater part of this area, is a mellow, soft, brown silty loam about 10 
inches in average depth, sometimes varying from a silty to a heavy 
loam, or to a sandy or micaceous loam. Under average climatic con- 
ditions these soils work comparatively easily when 1,200 to 1,400 
pound horses are used. The soil does not easily crust or bake. 
Under very dry conditions it is sometimes rather difficult to plow, 
and some allowance should be made if clover, timothy, or alfalfa 
seedings are to be made in August. 
The general shape of the field has much to do with the efficiency of 
horse labor. Where the topography is rolling and but little broken 
by rough wooded areas or streams the general arrangement of the 
fields may be changed to economize labor. In Chester County, 
however, we have conditions very hard to change, since the area 
studied is often much broken by small streams with adjacent steep 
slopes, often wooded, dividing the farming area into natural divisions 
with irregularly shaped fields which require an unusual amount of 
horse labor in handling farm machinery. 
It is for this reason, probably, that the average number of crop 
acres per horse on the farms visited is less than on the farms surveyed 
in certain other regions. On many farms visited, however, a rear- 
i Soil Survey of Chester County, Pa. 
