FARM MANAGEMENT IN LENAWEE COUNTY, MICH. 19 
for suffering correspondingly large losses. This holds true in farming 
quite as well as in other lines of enterprise. 
There are a number of ways of measuring the size of a farm busi- 
ness. When the type of farming is quite uniform, and the region 
well developed, and when there is little variation in the quality of 
the soil, the size of business may be accurately measured by the 
total area of the farm. Other methods of measuring the size of 
farm business are by capital invested and labor requirements. 
SIZE OF FARM. 
In most sections similar to Lenawee County, where the general 
type of farming prevails, there is a strikingly direct relation between 
the size of the farm and the net returns. Larger acreages up to 
certain limits permit a better utilization of labor and machinery. 
With the types of farming thus far developed in this area, a large 
acreage devoted to a general type of jarming, with adequate machin- 
ery, and with a reasonable profit per acre, usually brings in a greater 
income for the owner or operator than a small farm handled more 
intensively and with relatively greater expense for hired labor. 
TaBLE X1.—Relation of size of farm to income on 300 owner and 153 tenant farms, 
Lenawee County, Mich. 
| Working owners. Tenants renting for cash. Tenants renting on share. 
| | | | 
: Aver- | Aver- | Aver- Aver- | Aver- | Aver- zs Aver, | Aver- 
Size offarm. |nym-| age | age | age |Num-| age | age | age | Num- DN age | age 
ber of |} size | farm | labor | ber of| size | farm | labor | ber of ae 5 farm | labor 
farms. of in- in- |farnas.| of in- in- | farms. ruin in- in- 
| farm. | come. | come. farm. | come. | come. * | come. | come. 
Acres, Acres Acres 
60 acres and less 66 45 | $540 | $277 7 38 | $500 | $456 4 37 | $278 $249 
61 to 100 acres... 124 84 922 445 14 86 73 648 35 84 526 474 
101 to 160 acres. 72 129 | 1,172 434 8 131 728 614 57 133 630 553 
Over 160 acres... SO lh D7 Wale OL De OG) OM OS 24.| 230 |. 889 Tu 
Allfarms. 300 | 104 | 1,069 481 33 102 739 651 120 125 640 564 
2 
Table XI shows the influence of the size of farm on labor income 
for both owner farms and tenant farms studied. The average farm 
income of the 300 working owners advances rapidly and uniformly as 
the farms increase in size, likewise the average labor income increases 
rapidly until the farms reach 100 acres in size, remains about constant 
for the next. higher size-group and again increases rapidly in the 
group of farms above 160 acres in size. The 66 farms of 60 acres and 
less, and an average of 45 acres each, made clear of expenses an 
average farm income of $540, and after deducting 5 per cent 
interest on the investment made an average labor income of $277. 
The 124 farms in the size-group of 61 to 100 acres, and an average of 
84 acres in size made an average farm income of $922 and an average 
