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FARM PROFITS. 45 
LABOR REQUIRED. 
It required 22.5 months of labor per year to operate these farms, 
12 months for the farmer himself, 4.4 months for hired labor, and 6.1 
months for family labor. Thus 80 per cent of the work was done by 
the operator and his family, and 20 per cent hired. 
FARM CAPITAL. 
The capital value of these farms for the five-year period averaged 
$17,692; 84 per cent of which was in real estate, 11 per cent in live 
stock, 3 per cent in machinery, and 2 per cent in supplies and cash. 
Real estate averaged $100 per acre. The value of land, exclusive 
of buildings, averaged $12,137 per farm, or 69 per cent of the total 
farm capital. 
RECEIPTS. 
The farm receipts in this area (Table IX) averaged $2,300 per 
farm for the five-year period. They were higher in 1913 ($1,961) 
than in either 1914 or 1915, due primarily to the decline in the price 
of muk for these two years. In 1916 the price of milk was advanced, 
and this together with an increase in the number of cows raised the 
receipts to $2,560 per farm. In 1917 these same factors aided in 
increasing the receipts to $3,278 per farm. 
Figure 16 shows graphically the average distribution of receipts 
for each year and for the average of the five-year period. This 
chart shows the great importance of the live-stock business in the 
organization of these farms. In 1913 fully 93 per cent of the total 
income was from live stock, with 4 per cent from crops, while in 
1917 live stock represented 96 per cent of the total receipts and crops 
only 2 per cent. The sale of dairy products heads the list of re- 
ceipts. In 1913 42 per cent of the income was from this source, and 
this percentage increased during the period to 53 per cent in 1917. 
A decrease in the number of hogs for sale was mainly responsible for 
the, decrease in the proportion of receipts from hogs. 
EXPENSES. 
The expenses connected with operating these farms, above those 
of interest on capital and the value of the farmer’s own labor, aver- 
aged $1,007 for the five-year period, increasing from $882 per farm 
m 1913 to $1,288 in 1917. The largest four items of expense, in 
order, were family labor, hired labor, taxes and insurance, and feed 
purchased. These four represented two-thirds of the total expense. 
In figure 17 is shown the relation of each of the more important 
items of expense to the total. The increase in expenses during the 
period had little effect upon the relative importance of the various 
items. The poor corn yields in 1915 and 1917 increased the expense 
for purchased feed these years, 
