Farm Types in Nebraska 
33 
in the first column of the table. The third shows the number 
of all farms within this same area of land in 1910. Columns 
4 and 5 of the table give the calculated average size of farm 
for 1900 and 1910 respectively, while columns. 6 and 7 give the 
average size of farm as recorded in the census. It will he ob- 
served that where the number of farms in 1910 shows an in- 
crease over 1900, the average size of farm recorded in the 
census decreases in eastern areas and increases in western 
areas. For example, in 1900 some five million acres of land in 
the western Sand Hills held 1,334 farms. Ten years later 
the number of farms on this area of land had increased to 
3,266. The total area of land divided by the number of farms 
gives 4,359 acres per farm in 1900 and 1,781 acres in 1910. 
From the standpoint of the average area of land required to 
make a family living in those years, the figures are not far out 
of line with the experience of thrifty ranchers and farmers 
living there. Regardless of the fact that the number of farms 
in the western Sand Hills more than doubled between 1900 and 
1910, the census records a 30 per cent increase in the size of 
farm. This increase in size would not appear if all land 
grazed had been included in farm. 
It is seldom that large areas of grass land in the Great 
Plains are so completely withheld from farm use as to reduce 
agricultural practices to zero. Where land is partly withheld 
farmers and ranchers simply practice more extensive methods 
of farming than the other factors in the region would actually 
reauire. What is here said of grass lands will not apply to 
the timber lands found in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. 
In this area, part of the land is used by lumber companies and 
cannot be classed as land in farms. The fact that much of this 
heavy timber must be cleared before the land can have any 
farm use makes it relatively easy to hold large tracts of 
timber from agricultural use. From these facts it can readily 
be inferred that in a timber region the area of a county di- 
vided by the number of farms contained cannot give a true 
index to the average size of farm. Tho size-of-farm lines, so 
determined, have been drawn across northern Minnesota and 
Wisconsin, they are of value only when compared with the 
