62 BULLETIN 341, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
farms. Nevertheless, the necessities of the case require that the 
expenditure for machinery be nearly twice as much per acre of crops 
on the smallest farms as on the largest, and there is an almost regular 
decrease in the value of machinery per acre as the size of the farm 
increases. A similar state of affairs is shown in the last two col- 
umns of the table. On the very small farms the average value of — 
the farm dwellings is 3.41 times, while on the largest farms it is only _ 
1.68 times the net farm income. Similarly, the cost of other build- — 
ings is relatively very much larger on the small farms than it is on 
the large ones, as shown when the value of the buildings is measured 
in terms of the net farm income. The cost of farm buildings in this 
area is considerably higher than it is in many other sections of the 
country. This is due mainly to the fact that farm structures are 
more substantially built here than is customary in more newly set- 
tled sections. It is doubtful, however, in view of the very substan- 
tial construction of these buildings, whether the annual cost of main- 
tenance for farm buildings is much, if any, larger than it is in the 
Middle West, where the buildings cost less but are less substantially 
built. The amount of money the farmer can afford to put into a 
building depends in part on the length of time it will last. It may 
be, therefore, just as cheap in the long run to build a very substan- 
tial building that will last a century as to build a much cheaper one that 
will last only 30 years. While the interest charges are greater on 
the more expensive building, the depreciation and repairs may be 
much less. This is a problem which has not yet been worked out 
fully. We do not know just what proportion of the farmer’s income 
he is justified in putting into farm buildings, though this is one of 
the important problems under investigation. 
Table XXVIII shows another reason why small farms are more 
difficult to make profitable than large ones. This table shows the 
annual repair and interest charges on machinery and buildings and 
the repair charges on fences on farms of different size. In the last 
column of the table these expenses are combined and reduced to an 
acre basis. 
TABLE XXVIII.—Relation of size of farm to yearly interest and repair charges 
on machinery, buildings, and fences on 378 owner farms, Chester County. 
Cost per farm. 
‘ ates Cost 
Size of farm, in acres. Racer SEIS ES: per 
—___—___,——| Fence | Total) acre 
Re- | Inter- Re- | Inter- repairs. fem 
pairs. est. Total. pairs. est. Total. 
6Qiandiless=: = S.-esene ae ee $9 $18 $27 $11 $162 $173 $6 $206 $5. 81 
GIstosLOO ES eee eee 14 29 43 11 248 259 8 310 5. 80 
TUTE Ko IG) ee Se eee | 21 37 68 | 16 308 324 14 396 4.54 — 
Overt GO is toe ee 41 53 94 3 493 496 18 608 4.31 
INVerages te aera nt!. pels 30 | 46 2 | 256 | 266 10 322 5.08 | 
