FARM MANAGEMENT PRACTICE OF CHESTER COUNTY, PA. 29 
this group. Hay is more prominent as a source of direct income on 
the two groups of largest farms than on any others. 
In a general way, with some exceptions, beef cattle, sheep, and hay 
increase in relative importance with increase in size of farm, though 
the increase is slight and.rather irregular. These represent the less 
intensive enterprises. But the more intensive enterprises, such as 
poultry, potatoes, fruit, and truck crops, decrease in relative impor- 
tance as the size of the farm increases. In the case of poultry, the 
actual income is approximately the same in each of the size groups. 
The same is true of the income from fruit. In the case of potatoes, 
the actual income increases slightly with increase in size of farm, 
while in the case of truck crops it decreases. 
We have already seen that the percentage of wheat acreage is re- 
-markably uniform in the different size groups. With the exception 
of the very smallest farms, on which the small quantity of wheat 
grown is largely used for chicken feed, the percentage of income from 
wheat is quite as uniform. [Except in the first group, there is only 
one group in which the figures vary more than one-half of 1 per cent 
from the average of 8.5. 
The number of farms other than dairy farms in this area is too 
small to permit definite conclusions concerning the relation of size of 
farm to type of farming; but if we compare the average area of the 
farms deriving as much as 20 per cent of their income from the vari- 
ous enterprises, we get the interesting result that the 106 farms deriv- 
ing as much as 20 per cent of their income from the sale of hay aver- 
age 105 acres in area. This is considerably higher than the average 
of 90 acres for the whole number of farms. Likewise the 10 farms 
deriving more than 20 per cent of their income from steers average 
128 acres, and the two deriving this much of their income from sheep 
average 108 acres. These are the less intensive enterprises.and tend 
to gravitate toward the larger farms. On the other hand, farms 
deriving as much as 20 per cent of their income from the more inten- 
sive enterprises average as follows: Poultry, 51 farms, 56 acres; pota- 
toes, 39 farms, 78 acres; truck crops, 4 farms, 33 acres. These facts 
are all in keeping with the principle that the smaller the farm the 
more intensive must the farming be for best results, provided, of 
course, the region is one in which the more intensive enterprises can 
be made successful. 
The foregoing data relate entirely to the 378 farms operated by 
their owners and not maintaining a hothouse business. There were 
27 of the latter, their average size being 62 acres. Several of them 
are farms of less than 40 acres, but there is an occasional large farm 
which runs a mushroom plant as a side line, though in some cases it 
_Yepresents the principal source of income even on these large farms. 
