1s) BULLETIN 341, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The production of clover and grass seed was an important industry 
in Chester County in 1840, but gradually declined and practically 
disappeared about 1890. 
About 1880 a tobacco furore broke out in the county. For a few 
years the area increased enormously, having spread from the adjoin- 
ing county of Lancaster. But the craze for tobacco lasted only a 
few years. Prices were disappointing and the prejudices of the farm- 
ing people against the crop militated against its continuance. In the 
area surveyed tobacco was found on only three farms, two of them 
being tenant farms. 
FARMS CLASSIFIED BY TENURE. 
Of the 643 farms included in this survey 449 were operated by 
their owners, 17 were operated by farmers who owned part of the 
land and rented additional land, and 7 were operated by owners who 
rented out a part of their farms. There were 57 tenants paying cash 
rent, 75 paying a half share, and 14 who furnished only labor and 
received one-third of the products of the farm. There were three 
other tenants who rented land from more than one landlord and 21 
of the records were incomplete and were hence discarded. 
The 449 farms operated entirely by their owners were subdivided 
as follows: 378 farms on which the farmer himself took a man’s part 
in the work of the farm; 16 farms owned and managed by women who 
did none of the farm work; 27 farms devoted wholly or in part to a 
hothouse business, mainly mushrooms, though in two cases carnations 
were grown; 1 owner received more than half of his income from 
business not connected with his farm; 24 farms were either operated 
by hired managers who received a salary or were owned by physicians 
or other professional men who are not really farmers but who main- 
‘tain country homes; finally, there were 3 small truck farms whose 
owners bought and sold additional truck-crop products. 
A careful examination of the tabulations in the following pages 
will show that the comparisons on which this bulletin is based could 
not well be made between the various groups mentioned above. The 
work is therefore limited to the 378 farms operated by owners who 
took full part in the work of the REE except where otherwise noted 
in the text. 
Brief reference is made to the 27 farms maintaining a hothouse 
business, and there is also a somewhat extended discussion concerning 
two of the classes of tenant farms mentioned above. 
SIZE OF FARM AND UTILIZATION OF LAND. 
Table II shows the sizes of farms found in the surveyed area, the 
number in each size group, and the manner in which the land is 
utilized. The farms were first grouped into the sizes shown in the 
