2 BULLETTX 1000, 1". S. DEPARIAIEXT OE AGRICULTURE. 
more permanent basis for comparative determinations than mere 
money costs. For this reason the quantity requirements have come 
to be regarded as fimdamental in any discussion of farm management 
problems. 
In this bulletin all of the available crop requirement data assem- 
bled by the United States Department of Agriculture are sum- 
marized. In bringing these data together the Office of Farm Man- 
agement and Farm Economics has based its findings upon two 
sources of information: First, enterprise survey records covering the 
more important farm crops which have been obtained during the 
past ten years; second, a large number of detailed farm accounting 
records which have been assembled in cooperation with several 
agricultural experiment stations. Labor and material requirements 
per acre are reported hi this bulletin for the following crops: 
Corn, corn silage, cotton, wheat, oats, barley, rye, grain sorghums, 
field beans, potatoes, sugar beets, tobacco, apples, and hay, and a few 
miscellaneous field crops. 
In each instance the results have been compiled and averaged by 
districts. In obtaining the original records from which the accom- 
panying tables have been prepared, representative areas or regions 
were selected for the studies. Thus the figures which are given for 
each of these regions are directly applicable to many other districts 
where agricultural conditions are similar. 
The data given hi the tables may be used in two ways. In the 
first place, by applying current prices for labor, seed, fertilizer, and 
other materials to the quantity requirements, the cost of producing 
a crop may be approximately calculated. The farmer who is con- 
ducting his work in a businesslike way will frequently desire to make 
estimates of this character. If a crop which he has used extensively 
in the past does not promise well, on account of an unfavorable 
market outlook, a few calculations will enable him to estimate 
probable results with the new combinations which appear to be 
practicable. 
In the second place, quantity requirements may be applied in 
readjusting the enterprises of the farm as a whole. With this infor- 
mation available, the operator can obtain a clear idea of his labor 
requirements at different seasons, and peak loads may be avoided by 
developing the farm plan hi such a manner as to distribute the 
man labor and horse labor imiformly. From a farm organization 
standpoint, therefore, these basic factors have proved to be exceed- 
ingly valuable. 
Each type of farming develops practices which influence the 
quantity of man and horse labor that may be required in growing 
and marketing a given product. While field practice in any given 
district has a tendency to be quite uniform, and while the average 
