FARM ORGANIZATION IN SOUTHWESTERN MINNESOTA 13 
worked for some time. Seven colts were foaled on the 36 farms each 
year of this study. This number would little more than offset the 
death loss of work horses. 
There are few strictly dairy cattle on these farms. Most of the 
cattle are either of beef breeding or of the general-purpose type often 
classed as " dual purpose." For discussion in this bulletin, all cattle 
are divided into three classes: Dairy cows, young dairy stock, and 
mixed cattle. Dairy cows include all cows in those herds in which the 
calves are weaned soon after birth and the cows milked by hand 
throughout their lactation. Young dairy cattle 4 include all cattle on 
these same farms not listed as dairy cows. As soon as a heifer freshens 
she is transferred from young dairy cattle to dairy cows and so classi- 
fied during the rest of her life in the herd whether milking or dry. 
The mixed-cattle enterprise includes all cattle on those farms where 
the cows are allowed to nurse their calves during part or all of their 
lactation. In these herds, part of the cows may be milked by hand 
all of the time ; and most of them, except the pure bred beef cattle, are 
milked by hand at least part of the time. However, since a complete 
record of the production for the herd could not be obtained, they are 
not classed with the dairy cows for which complete milk production 
records are available. Most of the individuals in both the dairy and 
mixed herds are rather plain ordinary cattle. The cows are only fair 
milkers and few beef steers of high quality are produced. They are 
fairly representative of the great majority of cattle raised in the gen- 
eral area. 
The hog enterprise has been the largest source of income on these 
farms during the three years of this study. They have f urnished more 
than one-third of the gross income. Hogs are the best bred of any 
class of stock in this area. Purebred boars are used on all f arms ? and 
in many cases purebred sows are used. 
Sheep are a minor enterprise on most farms. Usually the flocks are 
so small that they require little care and can pick up most of their 
living about the farm and farmstead. 
Poultry is only a side line on these farms. Enough chickens are 
raised to supply the table with eggs and poultry and a small surplus to 
exchange at the store for groceries and supplies. Most of the flocks 
are of the general-purpose or American breeds. 
UNIT REQUIREMENTS OF LABOR AND MATERIALS FOR CROPS 
In any study of the crop phase of farm organization it is essential 
to know the basic unit requirements 5 for the production of the various 
crops commonly grown in the area studied. These data include 
hours of man labor, hours of horse labor, pounds of seed, pounds of 
twine, and quantities of other material required in the production 
of the several crops. It is also important to know the seasonal 
distribution of this labor and the probable days available for the 
various crop operations. Since any study of unit requirements 
shows a wide variation between different farms, even in the same 
4 Young dairy cattle correspond to "other cattle" as defined in footnote 3, page 8 . 
5 The term "unit requirement" as used in this bulletin, implies unit consumption or expenditure of 
labor, seed, feed, and other factors of production under conditions as they exist rather than the implication 
that this consumption or expenditure is a fixed physical necessity. For example, if 3 man hours and 12 
horse hours per acre are listed as the labor requirement for plowing on a given farm, this simply means that 
this particular farmer expended this amount of labor in plowing an acre of land. 
