“FARMING IN THE BLUEGRASS REGION. 23 
lowering general efficiency and thus labor incomes. The farms that 
have labor incomes below $500 almost invariably show a poor 
utilization of pasture area. . 
It will be observed in Table XVI that the group of farms which 
furnishes over 5 acres of pasture for each animal unit have nearly 
twice the feed cost per farm as the group that furnished but 2 acres or 
less. This increased feed cost would necessarily follow where the 
acreage used by each animal unit increased with no decrease in the 
cost per acre of pasture. The group of farms showing lowest effi- 
ciency in the utilization of pasture area was only slightly lower in 
general quality than the preceding group and about the same quality 
as the third group, as indicated by the value of the land. 
CROP YIELD AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN EFFICIENCY. 
A factor of prime importance to profitable farming on these farms 
is the crop yields. In Table XVIII is shown the relation of crop 
yield to labor income and farm efficiency. The yield of ail crops is 
reduced to a crop index, as explained on page 22, 100 representing 
the average yield for all the farms giving records. Labor in- 
come increases directly as the average index of yield of the different 
groups increases. It is, of course, possible to secure high yields of 
crops at too great expense, but there is no indication that any of the 
farms studied here made any error on this point. Practically no com- 
mercial fertilizer was used. The common method of utilizing manure 
from animals would generally be regarded as wasteful. 
TABLE XVIII.—Relation of crop yield to labor income. 
Number . 
Crop index. of Pees ls 
records. ae CO 
Acres. 
QOFOTRISSS et ca yee Sina oie oe A aie ea ith tay) coh We nies Sire aa a ad Se et a 35 303 $217 
COE Soy A OKO pep pe tee St Er No el en MN pe Met ene ar aa a A 37 297 519 
TICOUE ray AIL) Sie Se ete ie ead Set aU a OEY ee 47 273 701 
TTT HO) a PAO esha SE ISIE i aa a lp er Ne rc ee 30 262 1, 080 
COG ETE TALON sR a a Ba tt LW ot TR 29 341 1, 102 
About 65 records were taken on methods of keeping up fertility. 
These showed that the average farmer hauled to the fields about 14 
per cent of the manure produced on his farm. In this section, how- 
ever, feed for live stock is generally hauled to the pastures and scat- 
tered about on places needing manure. In this way a great deal of 
manure is returned to the soil. It is estimated that about 50 per 
cent of the manure produced on these farms is utilized in keeping up 
soil fertility. The rest is wasted. 
