~ BULLETIN 1230, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
wheat area, since the binder is used there almost exclusively. A few 
headers are scattered through northern South Dakota. None is used 
in North Dakota. 
The density of population, distance from or access to centers of 
labor supply, degree of crop diversification, geographic distribution 
of rainfall, and size of farms were some of the other factors determin- 
ing’the choice of counties. Care was taken to include counties of 
old native white stock, counties with a considerable number of immi- 
grant farmers, and the counties in Kansas in which negroes were 
engaged in wheat farming. Nearly one-fourth of the farmers inter- 
viewed were renters in Kansas and the Dakotas. These percentages 
of tenancy correspond closely with the amount of tenancy in the 
States visited. Tenancy did not appear, however, to have any 
appreciable effect upon the labor question. Comparison of the labor 
practices of tenant farmers and farm owners in the same areas did 
not reveal any differences that could be attributed to tenancy. 
In the counties selected for study every farm, big or little, pros- 
perous or run-down, found along the roads traveled, was visited, 
and both main highways and side roads were included in the routes. 
Many farmers were absent from home when visited and in such cases 
the investigators went on to the next farm. When an area had 
been sufficiently sampled they moved on to another county. 
ACREAGE AND CROPS OF FARMS VISITED. 
One thousand two hundred and ninety farms visited harvested 
271,995 acres of wheat on a total farm acreage of 702,795 acres. 
(Tables I and II of the appendix.) Wheat constituted 63.2 per 
cent of the total cultivated acreage of these farms. (Table II of 
the appendix.) The farms averaged 545 acres in size, and wherever 
wheat is the main crop there always is a strong tendency toward 
large-scale farming. Indeed, 73.4 per cent of the farms visited 
exceeded 240 acres in area and almost one-half of them exceeded 
320 acres. (Table I of the appendix.) The farms visited, however, 
were of all sizes, ranging from less than 160 acres to 110,000 acres, 
and including a representative group of each size. 
Table II of the appendix shows the distribution of the farm 
acreage between various crops. In the last column of the table it 
will be noted the percentage of the cultivated acreage planted to 
wheat in the Kansas and Oklahoma counties was much higher than 
in the other States. This is in part due to the fact that the counties 
visited in Kansas and Oklahoma were all located in the ‘wheat 
belt” of those States, while in Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Minnesota 
it was possible to visit areas of other types. If eastern Kansas had 
been covered to the extent that the eastern sections of Nebraska 
and of the Dakotas were covered, corn would have exerted a larger 
influence on the figures obtained from Kansas. 
Next to wheat, oats was the most important crop in North Dakota 
and Minnesota, but in Nebraska and South Dakota corn was rela- 
tively the more important. In North Dakota and Minnesota a con- 
siderable acreage of barley was also encountered, and the combina- 
tion of wheat, oats, and barley must be considered when comparin 
the harvest labor demand of North Dakota with that of central an 
western Kansas. 
CNT es oo mye Me 
