22 
BULLETIN 1388, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Some poultry was kept on all but one farm during the two years. 
The small number of farms having 100 hens or over suggests the 
possibility of increasing the farm earnings by increasing the size of 
the farm flock on several of these farms. In 1922, 3 of the 33 small 
farms, 10 of the 67 medium farms, and 7 of the 39 large farms had 
100 hens or more. 
Considerable variation exists in the number of work stock kept on 
the various size farms in this area. One of the problems many of 
the farmers can study to their advantage is the most economical 
amount of equipment necessary to carry on their particular type of 
farming. Capital invested in needless work stock or farm machinery 
reduces the earning power of the farm capital. From Table 13 it 
seems that, in most cases, 2 horses are the proper equipment for 
small farms, 3 horses for medium-sized farms, and 4 horses for the 
larger farms. 
CHANGES IN ORGANIZATION OF THE SAME FARMS FROM 1921 TO 1922 
In this study of crops grown and livestock kept on farms in the 
area in 1921 and 1922 it is observed that even in such a short period 
several changes have taken place in the number of farmers engaged 
in each enterprise as well as in the distribution of crops grown and 
livestock kept on the farms. As previously pointed out, these varia- 
tions are largely the result of changes in the price and yield relation- 
ships of farm products from year to year, coupled with the fact that 
most of these farmers have a wide choice in the selection of their 
enterprises. The influence of relative prices and yields on the ten- 
dency of farmers to shift their enterprises from year to year is more 
clearly illustrated by a comparison of the organization of 60 farms 
operated by the same owners for two successive years. 
Table 13. 
Variation in number of work horses per farm on farms of different size 
in 1922 
Number 
of 
horses 
per 
farm 
Average size of farm 
Small 
(23.7 
acres) 1 
Medium 
(40.5 
acres) 
Large 
(75.8 
acres) 
1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
Over 6 
1 
19 
22 
17 
4 
3 
1 
20 
8 
4 
4 
6 
17 
3 
5 
4 
1 One small farm had no work stock. 
These 60 farmers, in common with other farmers of the area, ex- 
perienced their lowest alfalfa-hay prices in 1921. With normal yields, 
this resulted in a relatively low alfalfa-hay value per acre. This was 
also more or less true of the small grains and sugar beets. The fol- 
lowing year the acreage of all these crops was reduced in favor of 
the more profitable enterprises the previous year. Although potatoes 
