14 BULLETIN 341, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
price per acre with increase in size of farm, due largely to relatively 
greater cost of buildings on the smaller farms. There is a slight 
increase in the last group as compared with the preceding one, due 
largely to the fact that a considerable number of these large farms 
are owned by wealthy men who have had the capital to secure choice 
land and install somewhat elaborate equipment. Since that time 
there has been a marked increase in the price of land in this section. 
The reason for the general prevalence of farms of small to moderate 
size in this region is largely historical. These farms were established 
at a time when improved farm machinery was not available and when 
in consequence the ordinary farm family could farm only a small 
area. At that time farmers produced practically all their food and 
clothing, and they produced very little surplus for the markets. 
Under such circumstances only a small proportion of the population 
could live in cities, for the farm population could not feed such mul- 
titudes as are found in our modern cities. When competition with 
the West brought on the panic of the forties, it became necessary for 
the farmers of the North Atlantic States to increase the magnitude 
of their business in order to meet the competition with these larger 
farms of the West. There were two methods of doing this. One was 
to secure more land; the other was to farm more intensively. Most 
eastern farmers chose the latter because it represented the line of 
least resistance. 
In locations favorable to fruit and truck growing these industries 
developed enormously in this general region. So great became the 
production, especially of vegetables, that the business was gradually 
crowded off of all except the most favorably situated areas of very 
light soil, which could throw their products on the market very early 
in the season and thus get the advantage of the high prices which 
prevail before the markets are overstocked. The business, therefore, 
became practically impossible on the heavier types of soil. The only 
other methods of developing intensive farming were dairying, poul- 
try raising, and tobacco growing. Several localities in the North 
Atlantic States particularly adapted to the production of high-grade 
tobacco have developed this business extensively. One of the im- 
portant tobacco-growing areas is in Lancaster County, just west of 
Chester. Poultry are found on practically all farms in the North 
Atlantic States, and here and there over this entire territory are 
many farms devoted mainly to this business. 
But the type of intensive farming available to the largest number 
of eastern farmers was dairying, and this whole region has become 
one of the most intensive dairy regions on the continent. This was 
the course taken by the farmers of Chester County, dairy products 
constituting by far the most important source of income. 
