U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The larger the acreage the farmer has over which he profitably can 
work a machine, the more able is he to afford a well-built article of 
good design. There is no doubt, also, that farmers having large 
capital and business will average better as operators of machinery 
than will men who are content or obliged by personal limitations to 
operate a small business. Data obtained in thi3 section regarding 
repairs also indicate that farmers having the larger acreages to work 
do so with the lower repair charges per acre. This is due, partly at 
least, to the fact that some repairs are made necessary because of 
deterioration when the machinery is idle. But it is probably also 
due in part to the fact that the better managers on the large farms 
make repairs, adjustments, and give other needed attention promptly, 
thereby reducing the repair costs and obtaining more units of work 
from each implement. The economic aspects of expenditure to 
shelter farm machinery from exposure to the elements are referred 
to hereafter. 
SOURCES OF DATA. 
An inquiry addressed to several thousand farmers in Niagara, 
Orleans, Monroe, Wayne, Genesee, Livingston, and Ontario Counties 
in western New York afforded a considerable mass of data from 
which the utility of farm machinery in this section has been de- 
termined. Facilities for housing machinery in this section are very 
much better than the average the country over, the natural thrift 
of the farmers leading them to house such property as much as pos- 
sible. On account of the large amount of rainfall, hay and grain 
crops are usually stored in the relatively large barns typical of the 
area, so that during the summer months many farm implements 
stand out exposed to the weather until the barns are emptied of 
these bulky crops. At other seasons, however, the machinery is 
well housed. In mechanical ability there is no doubt that the 
farmers in this section are the equal of any. 
In response to the inquiry reports were obtained for 1,165 walking 
plows, 294 sulky plows, 1,169 spring-tooth harrows, 824 spike-tooth 
harrows, 738 disk harrows, 1,173 land rollers, 1,061 grain drills, 72 
one-row corn planters, 97 two-row corn planters, 1,114 one-horse 
cultivators, 881 riding cultivators, 217 cabbage transplanters, 359 
engine sprayers, 1,232 mowers, 1,217 hay rakes, 416 hay tedders, 
563 bean harvesters, 1,028 grain binders, and 458 corn binders. The 
bean harvesters, cabbage setters, and corn binders are used chiefly 
in Livingston and Genesee Counties, while the engine sprayers have 
their widest use in the fruit-growing counties along the lake. The 
other implements are used on nearly every farm. Corn is planted 
almost entirely with the grain drill, few corn planters being used. 
