2 BULLETIN 1400, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Through the cooperation of the milk distributors the figures for the 
quantity of milk sold by the farmers and the cash receipts for milk 
were obtained directly from the distributors' books, thus providing a 
very accurate figure for milk sales, the principal source of income. 
Thanks are due both to the farmers and to tlie business men who 
cooperated in this study by giving necessary information. 1 
In taking the farm records, no special effort was made to select 
farms of any one type. Instead, the farms were visited just as they 
came, but no records were taken from farms which were not being 
operated on a business basis. Farms operated as parts of estates 
or as show places were excluded, as such farms were not representa- 
tive of ordinary farming conditions. 
Fi<;. l. — Location of Chester County, and of area where the records were obtained 
DESCRIPTION OF AREA 
All of the farms surveyed lie in the Piedmont Plateau region, an 
area of rolling topography and generally fertile soils (figs. 1 and 2). 
The area is one of unusually uniform soil conditions, thus eliminat- 
ing much of the diversity in operations from farm to farm caused by 
soil differences. Long-continued dairying has maintained the soil 
in very productive condition, the yields of nearly all crops being 
1 The field work was done in cooperation with the Pennsylvania State College. Acknowledgment is 
dm to I K. McCord of that institution, and Jesse Tapp of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, for 
planning the survey and initiating the field work, and to John Bohn, John W. Corrnan, William F. Hall, 
William M. McMahon, Joseph I. Stubbs, F.rvin J. Utz, and Norman L. Wolf, who assisted in interview- 
ing the farmers. The direct clerical work, both in the field and in the office, was under the supervision of 
Mrs. Henrietta Bettles. Thanks are due to her and to the corps of clerical assistants for their work on 
this investigation. 
