6 BULLETIN 1400, IT. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Those values are averages for the whole county, rather than for 
the particular area surveyed. Yields in this area are higher than 
for the whole county, and the acre-values would likewise have been 
somewhat higher. 
The values per acre of the different crops in 1922, the year of the 
survey, wore much below those of the war period, 1915-1919, and 
were generally not much above those of 1909. Wheat was worth 
less per acre than in 1909; oats practically the same; corn and 
potatoes one-fifth and one-third more; hay, because of an unusual 
yield, was highest with 40 per cent above the 1909 acre value. The 
1921 acre values were just about as low. The year following the 
survey, 1923, the acre values were somewhat higher for most of the 
crops. 
As far as the crops were concerned, the year of the survey was 
one when crop values were at a very low point relative to the value 
of other commodities. This fact must be kept in mind in drawing 
conclusions from the profits obtained on the different farms. 
LIVESTOCK AND LIVESTOCK PRODUCT PRICES 
During 1922 Chester County farmers were better situated with 
regard to livestock returns than with regard to crop returns. As 
shown in Table 2, both milk and eggs brought prices about 40 per 
cent above the pre-war average. Beef animals and hogs sold rela- 
tively lower, but these are of minor importance. 
Table 2. — Prices of Chester County livestock and livestock -products, annual 1922; 
and averages, 1890-1923 
Years 
Average: 
1890-1899 
1900-1909 
1910-1914 
1916-1919 
1920-1923 
1922 
Milk per 
hundred- 
weight, 
Phila- 
delphia 
60-mile 
Dollars 
1.17 
1.40 
1.63 
2.52 
2.79 
2.32 
Eggs per 
dozen, 
New 
York 
Dollars 
0.150 
.196 
.247 
. 393 
.417 
.347 
Steers 
per 
hundred 
weight, 
Chicago 
Dollars 
5.32 
6.37 
8.59 
13.91 
11.69 
10.32 
nogs per 
hundred 
weight, 
Chicago 
Dollars 
4.41 
6.02 
8.00 
13. 66 
9.94 
9.39 
Prices in per cent of the 1910-1914 average 
Per cent 
Per cent 
Per cent 
72 
61 
62 
86 
79 
74 
100 
100 
100 
155 
159 
162 
171 
169 
136 
142 
140 
120 
Per c<t;t 
55 
75 
100 
171 
124 
117 
Milk prices from Inter-State Milk Producers' Association and the Report of the Governors' Tri-State 
Milk Commission for Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. Other prices from the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. 
The prices of milk and eggs have since been well maintained, and 
both steer and hog prices nave shown some recovery from the low 
levels of 1921 and 1922. With the prices shown it is evident that 
conditions in 1922 were more favorable in this region to the dairy 
and poultry enterprises relative to the cash crops, beef, or swine 
enterprises, than they were in previous years. 
PRICES OF EXPENSE ITEMS 
Although the gross income from crops and livestock in 1922 was 
not so much above the pre-war levels, many of the farmers' items 
of expense were still high. Threshing, horse shoeing, farm ma- 
