FARM MANAGEMENT IN CLINTON COUNTY, INDIANA. 
67 
In general, most farms should put to corn all the acreage that 
can be cared for well and still be consistent with a good crop rotation 
system and the economical use of labor and equipment. 
The cropping systems on many of the farms have been well worked 
out. They necessarily yary on different farms on account of size 
of farms and the labor and equipment at hand, but the more success- 
ful farms as a rule haye a little larger percentage of their land in corn 
than the less successful farms. 
The cropping system on a given farm must also yary from year 
to year on account ol change in the size of a farm, the labor and 
equipment at hand, or of a failure of some crop, but as a rule the 
farms hewing nearest the line in their cropping systems year in and 
year out were more successful than the others. This, of course, 
does not preclude changes in cropping systems which may be due to 
general economic forces. 
Heayily-stocked farms as a rule were more successful than lightly- 
stocked farms. But in this matter the ability of the farmer to 
handle livestock successfully plays an important part. Instances 
of heayily-stocked farms, with inferior grades of stock, or with a 
disease epidemic such as hog cholera, or with improper care, or 
with improper feeding, were not uncommon. 
The farms heavily stocked with hogs were usually more successful 
than those on which other classes of stock predominated. This 
does not exclude other classes of productive livestock from the 
farms, for there should be at least enough to supply the families 
with food products and to consume by-products, roughage, etc., 
which would otherwise be wasted from the standpoint of feed. The 
production of dairy products, poultry, and eggs on all farms and of 
beef cattle on the larger farms should be encouraged along with the 
production of hogs, the principal money crop of the locality. 
Many of the smaller farms, in order to produce incomes to ade- 
quately support the families living on them, should increase their 
production by the use of more land, by intensifying their cropping 
systems, or by intensifying their livestock production. Some of 
the farmers on small farms have increased their incomes by the use of 
more land; some by intensifying their cropping systems by putting 
more land to corn and growing a few acres of a more intensive crop, 
tomatoes, for example; and some have increased their incomes by 
intensifying their livestock production by buying additional feed. 
TBe importance of crop yields per acre, and of livestock receipts 
per animal, as factors of successful farming is hard to overestimate. 
Farms above the average of the locality in both of these matters were 
seldom unsuccessful, while farms below the average in both seldom 
were successful. 
Item. 
Farms with crop yields per 
acre and livestock receipts 
per animal- 
Above the 
average of 
the locality 
averaged. 
Below the 
average of 
the locality 
averaged. 
$2, 789 
1,243 
7.7 
$370 
$1,256 
Labor incomes 
93 
3.5 
Family living from the farm . . .. 
$324 
