30 
BULLETIN 1446, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
The influence of yield per acre on the cost per acre and per bushel 
and on the profits from wheat farming is shown in Table 26. With 
few exceptions an increase in yield resulted in some increase in cost 
per acre, but in a proportionately greater decrease in cost per busheL 
With an increase in yield from an average of 13.3 bushels to an average 
of 32.8 bushels per acre, the cost per acre increased from an average 
of $25.79 to an average of $33.69 per acre or 30.6 per cent, and the 
corresponding cost per bushel decreased from $1.94 to $1.03 or 47 
per cent. 
In the production of any given crop a point will be reached beyond 
which an increase in the product will result in an increasing cost per 
unit of product. In the case of wheat on these farms the cost groups 
do not indicate that the methods of production have resulted in an 
increasing cost per bushel. 
Table 26. — Relation between yield, the cost of producing winter wheat and the 
profits from wheat farming on 77 owned farms, 1921 
Farms 
in 
group 
Average cost 
Labor 
income 
Return 
on farm 
capital- 
ization 
Variation in yield per acre (bushels) 
Per acre 
Per 
bushel 
Under 15 
Number 
5 
9 
15 
23 
17 
8 
Dollars 
25.79 
25.68 
24.77 
30.96 
Dollars 
1.94 
1.41 
1.12 
1.12 
Dollars 
-2, 065 
-1,078 
84 
400 
115 
1,644 
Per cent 
-4.1 
15 to 20 
.3 
20to25_ . 
4.7 
25 to 30 
4.8 
30 to 35 
33.69 1.03 
36.95 
4.7 
6.3 
In 1921 the average yield on owned farms was 27.8 bushels per 
acre. Fifty-seven per cent of these men had yields equal to or below 
the average of all owned farms. As in the case of cost per bushel, 
the yield of wheat was emphatically a deciding factor in determining 
the profits from these farms (fig. 12). For those farms falling in 
the lowest yield group, or under 15 bushels per acre, the labor income 
was minus $2,065 per farm and the percentage return to capital 
minus 4.1; for the group with the largest yield, or 35 bushels and 
over per acre, the labor income averaged $1,644 per farm, and the 
percentage return to capital was 6.3. 
The following summarizes the experiments conducted at the agri- 
cultural experiment station at Moro, Oreg., with respect to the effect 
of different methods in preparing the soil for wheat, and of the han- 
dling of the crop, on the yield of wheat obtained. 8 
Fall disking of stubble and spring disking before early spring 
plowing reduced wheat yields. 
Spring disking before late spring plowing killed weeds, saved 
moisture, and increased yields. 
Highest yields and best quality of wheat were produced on early 
spring-plowed summer-fallow. Careful experiments at Moro for nine 
years have proved that the average yield of winter wheat after early 
spring plowing was 6.3 bushels per acre more than after late spring 
plowing and 2.3 bushels per acre more than after medium-early 
spring plowing. 
8 Stephens, D. E., and Hyslop, G. R, Wheat Growing After Fallow in Eastern Oregon. Bull. No. 190, 
Oreg. Agr. Exp. Sta. 
