Farm Types in Nebraska 
31 
seen ranchers strongly opposed to increasing the number of 
farms. Even in those times they must have felt that, to make 
a living under such economic conditions as they were experi- 
encing, it was necessary to use practically all of the land. 
The first calculations of the size of farm per county in 
this State were based upon the assumption that only a very 
small part of a county was not being used by the people farm- 
ing there. An attempt was made to eliminate from the total 
acreage of each county (1) the area occupied by the very small 
farms reported in the census and (2) the area occupied by 
town lots and railroads. It was soon found (1) that the 
very small farms could not consistently be separated from the 
largest farms and (2) that the area of land occupied by towns 
and railroads combined did not as a rule amount to one per 
cent of the area of the county. Further studies brought out 
the fact that the relation between the number of very small 
farms and the area of land occupied by towns and railroads 
was such that one always tended to offset the effect of the 
other when the total area of the county was divided by the 
total number of farms. Figures bearing upon the size of 
farm in the vicinity of Omaha will illustrate this tendency of 
very small farms to offset even a large area of land in town 
lots and railroads. According to the order followed in the 
first method of study, it was estimated that Douglas county, 
in which Omaha is located, had 29,560 acres of land occupied 
by towns, railroads, and very small farms. The remaining 
area of Douglas county was then divided by the number of 
larger farms. This gave 168 acres per farm. Following the 
order of the second method the total area of the county was 
simply divided by the total number of farms. This gave 123 
acres per farm. As a check on these figures a field study 
(1917) was made in Papillion precinct in Sarpy county some 
seven miles southwest of the South Omaha market. The area 
covered was 18,880 acres. The average size of farm here 
proved to be 126 acres. Judging from this study and also 
from field observations in practically all nrecincts in Douedas 
county, the second method of calculating the size of farm gives 
