A STUDY OF FARM ORGANIZATION IN CENTRAL KANSAS 63 
which will give a maximum advantage through complementary rela- 
tions, provided they do not conflict with some of the other principles 
to be observed. 
Enterprises of a supplementary character are those which find a 
Elace in the farming system because they utilize the time of men, 
orses, and machines which would otherwise be idle, or because they 
provide a means of marketing feeds, pasture, or other farm resources 
that would go unused without such enterprises. Feed crops supple- 
ment wheat to advantage in the region of McPherson County. 
Most livestock enterprises also supplement wheat, but summer 
dairying competes directly with wheat for labor. This may be 
avoided by having the cows freshen in the fall; they then giving 
very little if any milk during the summer and early fall months when 
crops demand most of the available farm labor. 
The different enterprises included in the farm business are usually 
competitive in some respects and complementary or supplementary 
in others. Oats and wheat conflict at harvest time; but the work of 
preparing the land and seeding oats comes in the spring when there 
is little other work to be done, and they provide feed for work ani- 
mals and other livestock. Harvesting of alfalfa, sowed sorghums and 
Sudan grass hay may conflict with the work of wheat harvest or 
seed-bed preparation; but these crops provide the basis for employ- 
ment of the farmer's time in feeding livestock in winter and are there- 
fore supplementary to the organization as a whole. 
These competitive, complementary, and supplementary relation- 
ships between enterprises can not be evaluated and included in simple 
statements of the costs and net returns of the different enterprises 
on the farm. They must be recognized, however, and can be con- 
sidered on the basis of a knowledge of the amounts of each of the 
farm resources required at any season for the production of each 
enterprise. 
RELATION OF ENTERPRISES TO THE UTILIZATION OF FLXED RESOURCES 
Certain resources to be used in farming, which are relatively fixed 
and can not be changed, readily, are available on most farms. The 
labor supply usually includes family labor, which if not used in the 
farm business may not be profitably employed. Failure to utilize 
this labor as fully as possible without impairing the well-being of 
the farm family means that the farm resources are not used as effec- 
tively as possible. Enterprises may be chosen which will utilize such 
labor at times when it would otherwise be unemployed. The net 
result of such employment would be to increase the net profit to 
the business. The same argument applies in the case of equipment 
already owned. Other things being equal, it is better to use a build- 
ing or a machine and get some return on it than to permit it to stand 
idle. The utilization of fixed resources makes reductions in the 
wheat acreage come slowly. A small return on wheat-growing equip- 
ment is better than no return and the loss resulting from scrapping 
all or a portion of this equipment. A farmer's objective will be 
attained when he secures a maximum return for the use of these 
fixed resources and such additional return as can be obtained by 
direct cash expenses. 
