FARM MANAGEMENT PRACTICE OF CHESTER COUNTY, PA. 48 
TABLE XIX.—Percentage of income from poultry as related to labor income. 
Bemeeninotancome trom! poullthy. 6 == 22 2-- 2222 een eee ee None. 1 to 9. | 20 to 39. 40+. 
SINAUTIMTO OTe O TRL ATGIONS Sepa Seles ei 8 es Ee oe aia cet Gas UM hee a ctes ope 8 319 43 8 
NGI ISHeds! Ab Or AMCOM Cw ee se i oe ge ee eines s tak eeinapas oe ac Sie 38 104 97 40 
The numbers in the remaining classes are quite sufficient to give 
averages having a definite meaning. Farmers deriving from 1 to 19 
per cent of their income from poultry make profits above the aver- 
age, while those deriving more than 20 per cent of their income 
from this source make profits below the average. Furthermore, the 
largest number of farmers are in the class making the greatest profits. 
In other words, the farmers of this region have been driven by 
economic forces, which are not always definitely recognized, to give 
the poultry enterprise the position on their farms which conduces to 
the greatest profit. The fact that the forces acting in this case are 
not universally recognized and understood is proven by the fact 
that quite a number of farmers have not responded to them, 
We shall perhaps find no better illustration than this of the fact 
that it would not always pay the farmer to do cost accounting, and 
as a result of the information thus obtained increase the magnitude 
of his most profitable enterprises and eliminate those which the 
bookkeeping records indicate to be unprofitable. The Office of Farm 
Management has kept books on farm poultry under conditions 
similar to those prevailing on the average farm of this region, 
and when the time and material devoted to them are charged at 
current rates the results showed a loss for the year. Doubtless the 
same would be true on most of these farms. Yet the data given 
show that they are profitable when kept within proper limits. It is, 
of course, possible to make a real poultry farm profitable, especially 
near a good market, and such farms are to be found. But it is diffi- 
cult to do so. The poultryman finds himself in competition with 
farm flocks that are kept at nominal expense, both the time and 
materials consumed in their management being otherwise largely 
unutilized. The business may thus be distinctly profitable to the 
farmer with a small flock, while the poultryman under the same con- 
ditions would find it much more difficult to make a profit. One or 
two of the real poultry farmers found in this survey made fair 
profits, but they were unusual men. 
Dairying.—I\t has been made clear in the foregoing discussion that 
this is preeminently a dairy region. The receipts from dairy cattle 
and their products together constitute 44 per cent of the entire income 
of these 378 farms. It will later be seen that on the tenant farms 
dairying is even more important than it is on those operated by 
their owners. For the past third of a century the production of 
