FARM MANAGEMENT PRACTICE OF CHESTER COUNTY, PA. 63 
The total expense per acre for these purposes is seen to be $5.81 on 
the smallest farms and grows gradually less as the size of the farm 
increases, and on the largest farms it is only $4.31. 
This matter of the relation of the size of the farm to the ease of 
making a satisfactory profit has been dwelt upon at considerable 
length in these pages because of the notion which so widely prevails 
that the ideal in American agriculture is the small farm. Numerous 
- real-estate promotion schemes all over the country are based on this 
idea. It isa distinct fallacy. Very small farms are difficult to make 
successful anywhere, under American conditions, and it is only the 
exceptional man who is equal to the task. They must always be 
devoted to the most intensive types of farming, and the products of 
most kinds of intensive farming fluctuate enormously in volume and 
price, so that the business is very insecure. The danger is greatly 
magnified if these small farms are situated a long distance from 
market, for prices of their products do not have to fall very far until 
the transportation charges wipe out all profits. ven in the vicinity 
of the best markets these small farms succeed only in localities where 
they have distinct advantages for the particular type of farming 
which they follow. 
‘RELATION OF THE NUMBER OF DAYS WORK PER YEAR TO LABOR INCOME. 
In Table X XTX the 378 owner farms are divided into groups based 
on the number of man work units (or productive days’ work) per 
farm. One hundred and seventeen of these farms had less than 300 
man days’ work, with an average of 211. These same farmers had an 
average of 111 horse days’ work. This includes only the productive 
labor of the farm; that is, labor applied directly to a productive 
enterprise. 
TABLE XXIX.—Relation of the number of productive days’ work per farm to 
labor wcome, Chester County owners. 
Man Horse 
Average : 
: Number| work work : Labor | Adjusted 
Man work units per farm. of farms. | units per | units per nee income. | income. 
farm. farm. i 
Acres. Per cent. 
NDAD) umaV GTS ASsSI Sc a 117 211 111 49 $336 78 
Wh WO SOS. 6 see re 129 395 198 88 703 94 
SUL WO W025 5 ee ai ee eee oe 89 588 278 116 1, 083 112 
OU BENG! Owe oe Ua ea en 43 878 378 151 1, 668 152 
ASHER ae 378 439 211 90 | 789 100 
The average labor income on this group of farms is $336, or, fig- 
‘ured in percentage, as explained on a previous page, 78 per cent of 
the average of all the farms. The table shows that as the number 
of productive work units increases the labor income increases very 
markedly. Forty-three of these farms had over 700 productive man 
