FARM MANAGEMENT PRACTICE OF CHESTER COUNTY, PA. 51 
poultry of considerable importance, while potatoes, hogs, and corn 
constitute considerable, though less important, sources of direct in- 
come. Fruit is the only other enterprise generally found on these 
farms, and in nearly all cases it is a very small enterprise, designed 
principally for the production of home supplies. We have also found 
that the sources of income on these Chester County farms differ 
radically from those in certain other sections of the country. While 
some of these differences may be due merely to local customs inherited 
from the preceding generation of farmers, there are also deeper un- 
derlying causes. 
The principal factors which determine the distribution of farm 
enterprises are climate, soil, and local conditions with reference to 
market demands, market prices, and the character and amount of the 
available supply of labor. These are the factors which, in general, 
determine whether or not a given enterprise is adapted to a specific 
locality, but it does not at all follow that because an enterprise is 
adapted to the conditions prevailing generally in a region it is 
adapted to every farm in that region, for the business conditions on 
individual farms may make neighboring farms adapted to quite dif- 
ferent types of farming. We have already seen that some of the types 
of farming found in Chester County can be made quite successful if 
the farm is large enough. This is especially true of steer feeding. In 
some localities the distance to a shipping point may have considerable 
effect on the types of enterprises which each individual farmer should 
select. The amount of labor available to the farmer, the amount of 
capital at his disposal, and the character and amount of the equip- 
ment already on the farm also have an important influence in de- 
termining the enterprises which the individual farmer should attempt 
to maintain. Unless, therefore, the conditions which determine what 
enterprises are adapted to the region as a whole limit the profitable 
enterprises to a very small number, we should expect to find con- 
siderable diversity in types of farming. In Chester County the en- 
terprises adapted to the general region are comparatively few in 
number, though more numerous than is the case in some other sections 
of this country. It happens also that the one enterprise which seems 
best at home here, namely, dairying, can be successfully conducted, if 
right methods are used, on farms varying greatly in size. For these 
reasons we find greater uniformity in the type of farming in this 
locality than is generally the case in most parts of the country. There 
is considerable diversity in the local agriculture, but it is a diversity 
which is characteristic of the individual farm and does not in general 
result in classes of farms devoted to different types of farming. 
Table XXV gives the list of enterprises which are of any impor- 
tance in this region, together with the factors which are favorable and 
