14 BULLETTX 1271, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE 
locality where soil and climatic condition are rather uniform, these 
data are presented in tables showing the range of requirements for 
the individual farms. 
In addition to the range of requirements for the single year 6 the 
average for that year and for the preceding and succeeding years are 
shown; and the factors causing variations are indicated in order that 
a farmer wishing data applicable to his individual farm may find 
requirements covering conditions similar to those under which he is 
working. 
In addition to the range of requirements for the different farms and 
averages covering all farms, standard requirement data are shown. 
These standard requirements represent what ma}' be reasonably 
expected for cultural practices most characteristic of the area under 
good management. They are lower than the average, mean, or 
modal requirements and represent approximately the attainment of 
those farmers who are found among the upper 25 per cent in the 
scale of labor efficiency as measured by low labor requirements for 
a given operation. They are intended to serve as a measure or 
standard by which the individual farmer may, by comparison 
with his own requirements, check the effectiveness with which he 
utilizes his labor in performing the various operations. In addition 
to the time actually spent in motion in the field, a reasonable allow- 
ance is made in computing these standard requirements for time 
unadvoidably lost in going to and from fields, adjusting machinery, 
making necessary minor repairs on harness and machinery in the 
field, resting teams, delay by showers, and other losses of time neces- 
sarily incident to the operation. 
SEED-BED PREPARATION 
Since the operations involved in preparing the seed bed, such as 
plowing, disking, and harrowing, require practically the same amount 
of labor to cover an acre once over regardless of the crop for which the 
ground is being prepared, their labor requirements are presented 
in one table independent of the individual crop tables. Both man and 
horse labor requirements for these three operations on the basis of 1 
acre are shown in Table 5. 
6 The range of requirements for the year 1921 is presented in unit requirement tables. The middle year 
of the three was selected in order that a comparison with the preceding and suceeding years might be shown. 
On account of the replacement of some farms in the study one year by others the next, there is much less 
diiTi'ienceinthe composition ofthe group between two successive years than between 1920 and 1922. Then, 
too, 1921 was more nearly a normal year from the standpoint of climatic conditions. A wet, cold spring in 
1920 delayed the whole season's program of work and interfered abnormally with seed-bed preparation 
and the summer of 1922 was so hot and dry as to make that season abnormal, especially for hay and corn. 
