FARM MANAGEMENT IN LENAWEE COUNTY, MICH. 17 
The farms which show the higher labor incomes are making from 
10 to 40 per cent of their total income from the sale of crops, and it 
will be noted also that most of the farms in the list fall between these 
limits. Here, again, there is a direct relation between labor income 
and size of farm. Yields, too, as indicated by crop index, are some- 
what higher on the more profitable farms. It is interesting to observe, 
however, that on the farms where more than 40 or from 40 to 50 per 
cent of the income is derived from the sale of crops, even with the 
average size of farms remaining about the same and the yield of 
crops slightly better, the average labor income falls off materially. 
The results given in both Tables IX and X can at best only serve as 
a very general guide in the organization of the farms of different 
types and sizes under average conditions, which exist normally in 
the area surveyed and in nearby sections. 
SPECIAL FARMS. 
In this region, as in most others, an occasional farm is found 
which departs widely from the type which investigations show to be 
that best adapted to the average conditions of the area, and yet is 
a pronounced success. 
An example of this was found in a farm located on the heavier 
type of soil in Lenawee County on which alfalfa is easily grown. 
About 40 per cent of the crop area was in corn, 10 per cent in a 
nurse crop for alfalfa, and 50 per cent in alfalfa. In the winter 
season a large number of western lambs were fed. From a financial 
standpoint the results on this farm are decidedly satisfactory. 
The management of such a farm, however, requires considerable 
skill and business ability. One of the principal difficulties arises 
from the fact that the labor is unequally distributed throughout the 
year. When alfalfa occupies the place in a farm system that it does 
in this instance it is necessary to provide a separate equipment in 
teams and implements and a separate group of men to take care of 
the alfalfa. Hence the equipment and crews needed during the 
summer months on such a farm are about double those demanded by 
the system which the farmers here have worked out by experience. 
Only about one half of the labor required can be given employment 
throughout the year. The other half is needed only in the summer 
and from the nature of the case must be temporary labor, which is 
usually unsatisfactory. If some means could be devised to give 
profitable winter employment to the surplus labor needed during the 
summer season, this system would work without any special diff- 
culties other than those attending the fluctuation in the price of pro- 
ductive live stock to which the crop products are fed. To be success- 
ful with such a system, however, the farmer must be an expert 
50004°—18— Bull. 6943 
