x 
24 BULLETIN 482, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
RELATION OF DIVERSITY TO PROFITABLE FARMING. 
The principal advantages which diversity may secure are: (1) The 
adaptation of enterprises to the physical conditions of the farm as in 
cases where parts of the area are hilly or stony or where there are 
differences in soil; (2) the maintenance of soil fertility, as effected 
by having a legume in the rotation, or a blue-grass sod; (3) the 
profitable distribution of labor (other things equal, the system that 
utilizes available labor best has the advantage); (4) adaptation to 
market conditions. Market prices fluctuate often to the extent of 
causing serious loss where attention is centered on any one enterprise. 
Diversity steadies the Income of the farm and makes it more de- 
pendable. 
TABLE XIX.—Relation of type of farm to diversity. 
ERTR Pte) | es oa Per cent | Per cent > 
™ receipts | receipts | receipts | Diversity 
py ies ook aera nie from | from irom index. 
a - | crops. jlivestock.| tobacco. 
LOD Ce ee ee ere ae eee eee nee 31 80 2 
PLODACCO SOCK a6 oo. 5 cos occ en eee 61 5D 3.4 
Generalmaxed 222 2< o2c < 2 bo a see 36 68 4.6 
SROKA WAtl SOBACCO == 028s = oo ose es ee eee ene 31 37 4.1 
SLock with no tobaccd._-.---<:-....----7_+.--.=--.-- 18 18.3 2.8 
TEDL PSs fh re ange pe i een ie ned ee Se eS 10 2.0 
| 
Diversity is closely related to the size of farm. In the bluegrass 
region it would not be profitable even on the larger and cheaper 
farms to have all of the farm area in bluegrass, neither would it be 
profitable on small, high-priced farms to cultivate the entire area in 
tobacco. Through long experience the farmers have arrived at a 
distribution which, on the whole, has proved profitable under the 
conditions prevailing. (See Table VII.) 
The degree of diversity varies on different types of farms, as shown 
in Table XIX. Here it will be observed that the tobacco type and 
the stock type have the lowest diversity, while the intermediate types 
have the highest diversity. The tobacco and the stock type each 
emphasizes a single enterprise. The typical tobacco farm is rela- 
tively small in size, and in order to have a business of adequate mag- 
nitude the percentage of crop area in tobacco must be relatively large 
and the pasture area relatively small. A small area of pasture tends 
to decrease the receipts from stock. On the other hand, the dis- 
tinctly stock farm is relatively large in size, has a poorer quality of 
soil, and is cheaper in price per acre than farms of other types. 
Usually the topography is quite rolling and sometimes it is stony, a 
condition which is a handicap in tillage. In such cases it is more 
advantageous to leave a large proportion of the area in pasture and 
to till only the more level and more productive land. 
