42 BULLETIN 1421, U. §. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
EFFECT OF SIZE ON ORGANIZATION AND OPERATION OF FARMS 
Where the output is derived almost entirely from the sale of crops, 
the size of farm materially influences the effectiveness with which 
capital and labor can be used in the organization and operation of 
farms. The following discussion of this subject is confined to two 
size groups, 40-acre and 80-acre farms, because of the frequency with 
which these two sizes occur in this district, and it is assumed that the 
operators of the 40-acre farms are equally capable of managing 80-acre 
farms. 
Utilization of land.—The utilization of the farm land of these two 
size groups is shown in Table 20. The proportional parts of the total 
of these farms that was tillable land or in crops differed so slightly 
in the two groups that it can not be said that one group had the 
advantage of the other in this respect. They did differ considerably, 
however, in the percentage of the total crop acreage that was devoted 
to.the respective crops. During the four years the 80-acre farms 
devoted an average of 7 per cent more of the crop area to wheat and 
6 per cent less to sugar beets than did the 40-acre farms. Although 
the percentages of the crop area that were devoted to the other crops 
varied considerably from year to year, the averages for the two 
groups for the four years are very close together. 
TaBLeE 20.—Utilization of land on 40-acre and 80-acre farms, 1919-1922 
40-acre farms 80-acre farms 
Item 
1919 1920 1921 1922 1919 1920 1921 1922 
Farms studied, number_-____-_-_-_-- 51 53 S202F |p 4 38 37 33 16 
Acres | Acres | Acres | Acres | Acres | Acres | Acres | Acres 
SIZCLOMLALINS Soe ee ee ee A0E2) |= 4083 40. 0 40. 0 80. 0 79.9 79. 8 79.5 
Pillabletand ses <a ee ees 36.81) san STE 36. 6 36. 8 74. 5 72.6 74.3 72. 4 
Crop acreage___.____________- 3441 351) 352] 352| 704| -69.2| 707| 691 
idletcropiland == se sae il Pil =| eens area ae Faia) dl pee eee DN ee 
PasSturei ink BOs eye Se 9458: 1.9 1.4 1.6 3. 6 3.4 3.4 3.3 
Pasture not tilables= =e eee .6 .4 72 PANT AE6 1.6 .9 1.3 
Otherdand ds eves se eat EE 2.8 2.8 32 2.8 3.9 Dh 46) 5.8 
Crop acreage in: Per cent) Per cent| Per cent| Per cent| Per cent| Per cent| Per cent| Per cent 
WIN GAT ere oe ea ee eee 43 34 34 22 50 43 
AN fala es Se I peed od oe eae 19 22 22 20 20 26 21 20 
1S Yern Oh eet geqlbe ae” peel ey code Biren UTE 10 8 5 26 14 9 8 21 
IP OLALOCS ope swe ie arene 6 5 8 10 4 5 8 12 
Sugar beetsi fs: fete eee 7 12 13 5 4 4 za ae see oe 
Clover e245 EEE ae ey: ee ee 6 9 11 8 | 3 6 14 14 
Brait and gardén===22. 556. | 4 3 3 4 | 2 2 2 2 
Other-crops: = a eee ee 5 7 4 5 | 3 5 z 3 
1 Land occupied by roads, fences, buildings, corrals, canals, and ditches. That is, all land not used for 
pasture or crop production. 
Distribution of livestock.—The kinds of livestock kept on the 40- 
acre and 80-acre farms and the number of animal units of each kind 
are shown in Table 21. In proportion to size of farm, the 40-acre 
farms kept more of each class of livestock (except sheep) than did 
the 80-acre farms. The 40-acre farms kept an average of 8.8 animal 
units per farm and the 80-acre farms 11.4 units. Of these numbers 
3.5 were work animals and 5.3 were productive animals on the 40- 
acre farms, whereas 4.6 were work animals and 6.8 were productive 
