he. BULLETIN 341, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
type of dairying in this region, which leaves no skim milk for the 
young stock. Farmers have felt that they could buy cows more 
cheaply than they could be raised on the high-priced milk available. 
In general this has been true until quite recently, but in recent years 
the prices Chester County farmers have had to pay for cows have 
risen until at the present time raising has become at least as cheap 
as buying. Since this survey was made (1911-12) many more calves 
have been saved by these farmers than formerly, and the proportion 
of cows bought is now less than it was a few years ago. This has an 
important bearing on the question of herd improvement. It is a very 
dificult matter to buy cows of high quality, and high productive 
capacity on the part of the dairy cow, as will later be shown, is one 
of the most important problems confronting Chester County farmers. 
The horses kept on Chester County farms are mainly work animals. 
Less than one farm in three raises colts. Horse raising is thus not 
an important feature of the local farming, and the practice of buy- 
ing western horses to feed for sale, which is common in some Cen- 
tral Western States, is here practically unknown. 
Excepting dairy cattle and horses, poultry are the most important 
farm animals. The average number of hens per farm is almost 
exactly 100, or 1 animal unit. The status of poultry as a farm 
enterprise in this region will be considered in detail later. Nearly 
every farm keeps some poultry, but there are very few real poultry 
farms. 
A few hogs are kept on most farms, but the absence of skim milk, 
together with high local prices for grain, makes the hog a relatively 
unimportant enterprisé here. Hogs are kept mainly for home sup- 
plies, though some farmers realize considerable cash income from 
this source. 
Beef cattle and sheep were found on only a few farms each. Most 
of these were farms where labor was scarce and difficult to obtain. 
Table VI shows the acres per animal unit for each of the size 
groups. Taking the live stock as a whole, there is about the same 
intensity of stocking in each group, the average acres of crops per 
animal unit being 3.47 and the acres of pasture 1.18. The average 
area Of crops per dairy cow is 4.89 acres. The area of pasture per 
animal unit increases quite markedly with increase in size of farm. 
This is to be expected, since the larger the farm the less intensive the 
farming must be for satisfactory results. 
The heaviest stocking with dairy cows is found in the 41 to 60 
acre group and in the 101 to 120 acre group. The reason for this will 
be brought out later. The two largest groups have relatively fewest 
cows per given area of crops, or, what is the same thing, relatively 
the largest acreage of crops per cow. 
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