FARM ORGANIZATION IN SOUTHWESTERN MINNESOTA 27 
CAUSES FOR VARIATIONS IN LABOR REQUIREMENTS FOR OATS 
End-gate seeders were used on farms 5, 7, and 14, and the labor 
requirements for seeding were much lower than on any other farm. 
The man-labor requirement where an ordinary broadcast seeder 
was used was about the same as for a drill; but the horse-labor re- 
quirement was only about half as large, since only two horses were 
used on the seeders and four was the usual number on a drill. On 
farms 3, 9, 10 and 22, broadcast seeders were used. On farm 16, 
a small 2-horse drill was used, so both man and horse labor require- 
ments were high. 
On farms 13 and 21 only three horses were used on the binder, 
whereas four were used on practically all the other farms. The 
horse-labor requirement on these farms was about the same as the 
others, but the man-labor requirements were higher. On farm 4 
only three horses were used on the binder; but they were much 
larger horses than were used on any of the other farms, so that the 
horse-labor requirement was one ol the lowest and man labor only 
about the average. 
The labor requirements for cutting were highest on farms 15, 19, 
and 22, and lowest on farms 2, 3, and 9. The average-size field of 
oats on the first group of farms was 14 acres and the total acreage per 
farm 24. The same acreages for the second group of farms were 20 
and 73 respectively. One-third of the oat acreage on farms 14 and 
15 was over a mile distant from the farmstead. This was reflected 
in high labor requirements for cutting and shocking. It resulted 
also in high labor requirements for threshing on farm 14. 
The high labor requirements for shocking on farms 11 and 14 and 
for stacking on farm 8 were due in part to the use of family labor. 
On both farms boys were used in these operations. 
On farms 8 and 13, having the highest labor requirements for stack- 
ing, the yield per acre was 20 per cent higher than the average for all 
farms where oats were stacked. The highest yield was obtained on 
farm 4. The horse labor for shock threshing was highest on this 
farm and the man labor next to the highest. 
The data show that the man-labor requirements for stacking and 
stack threshing were about 50 per cent higher than for shock thresh- 
ing. There was also a small increase in horse-labor requirements. 
The total labor requirements per acre were lowest on those farms 
where little or none of the acreage was plowed. The highest labor 
requirements for disking or harrowing were found on those farms 
where these operations were repeated the greatest number of times. 
Although the man and horse labor requirement for harrowing once 
on farm 18 was the lowest in the group, the fact that the oat land 
was harrowed 2.3 times brings the total requirement up above the 
average. On farm 1, a low once-over requirement for disking was 
brought up above the average by repeating the operation 2.3 times. 
MATERIAL REQUIREMENTS FOR OATS 
The average quantity of oats *sown per acre on all farms for the 
three years was 3.2 bushels. The maximum rate of seeding was 4.7 
bushels, and the minimum 2.5 bushels. The average quantity of 
seed sown on farms using drills was 3 . 1 bushels ; on farms using broad- 
cast seeders, 3.4 bushels; and on farms using end-gate seeders, 3.9 
