40 - BULLETIN 341, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
It is clearly indicated here that under the conditions prevailing 
during the year of the survey the most profitable practice is to grow 
a little more hay than is needed for feed on the farm. It will be 
noticed, however, that the number of farmers in the second most 
profitable group is somewhat larger than in any other. The price 
of hay, due to a shortage in yield, was rather high during 1911, the 
average sale price being $22.12. These high prices probably induced 
a larger number of farmers to sell hay than is ordinarily the case. — 
Fruit—Of the 378 farms here under consideration, 315 reported — 
some fruit acreage, the average percentage area being 2.5. On only 
10 farms did this acreage exceed 10 per cent. In by far the larger 
number of cases it was lessthan 5. Fruit is thus very generally grown, 
but almost entirely for home use. Commercial fruit growing does 
not appear to be adapted to the conditions prevailing in this locality. 
Just why this is the case has not been determined, but it is probable 
that the character of the soil is the main factor. The topography is 
also less broken than it is in most of the leading orchard districts, 
thus giving rather poor air drainage and exposing the early bloom- — 
ing varieties of fruit to danger from untimely spring frosts. = 
-The relation of fruit acreage to labor income is shown in Table 
XVII. The 63 farmers who reported no fruit trees on their farms 
made labor incomes 9 per cent below the general average. 
TaBLE XVII.—Acres in fruit as related to labor incomes. 
PNICEES SIU UBT Ges aps pence eee es ET a rhe ako arya NIA ep oad ge RE None. 1 to 5. Over 5. 
IN GULTIND CrHO TAT TIS isis ee Ss Nels yp hee he weave Rifoymne ohn An by Oph ps Eda ee ng 63 306 9 
INATUSteGU ab OrsiNCOm es 225 ze eye se eee eae cece aia pee ee eee 91 103 48 
Those having 1 to 5 acres of fruit made labor incomes 5 per cent 
above the average, while the 9 farms having a larger acreage made 
less than half the average labor income. | 
While fruit occupied an average of 1.35 acres, or 2.5 per cent of | 
the crop area on each of these farms, the income from the sale of 
fruit was only seven-tenths of 1 per cent of the total receipts, as 
shown in Table VIII. In most cases the receipts are only 1 or 2 
per cent of the total farm receipts. In only five cases did the per- q : 
centage exceed 10, the maximum being 28 per cent. 
The relation of income from fruit and labor income is shown in 
Table XVIII. A majority of the farms sold no fruit, but their — 
labor incomes were below the average. A large number derived 
from 1 to 9 per cent of their income from this source, and made labor 
Incomes 13 per cent above the average. 
