American Agriculturist 
FARM—DAIRY—MARKET-GARDEN-HOME 
“Agriculture is the Most Healthful, Most Useful and Most Noble Employment of Washington 
Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Established 1842 
Volume 111 For the Week Ending April 7, 1923 Number 14 
Choosing and Buying a Farm 
Married in Haste, Repenting at Leisure” Applies in Purchasing a Farm 
I N buying a farm the first thing which 
a man must do is to select the region 
in which he wishes to farm. Different 
sections of a State or county are adapted 
for different types of farming. As a result 
of many generations of experience, farmers 
in each region have decided upon a certain 
type of farming which seems to be best 
adapted to their conditions. The _ 
man who expects to farm in such a 
region should ordinarily be willing to 
carry on the same general type of 
farming that his neighbors are en¬ 
gaged in. The man who wishes to 
carry on a particular type of farm¬ 
ing should select a farm in a region 
where that type is carried on. 
Community Interests an Asset 
There are occasional instances 
where individual farmers do very 
well by farming in a way which most'. 
of their neighbors do not do. For 
instance, one dairyman in a fruit 
region or one grower of small fruits 
in a dairy region may do very well 
on account of good local markets and 
little competition, even though he is 
carrying on the type of farming for 
which the region is not best adapted. 
In general, however, the man whose 
neighbors are engaged in the same 
type of farming with himself finds that he 
has many advantages. There is a commun¬ 
ity of interest, a large collection of indi¬ 
vidual experiences in the community and 
the judgments of many other men to draw 
upon. Labor in this community is skilled 
in doing the work connected with the sev¬ 
eral enterprises of the community. It is 
easier to sell products in a community 
where those products are raised in large 
quantities. It is easier to buy fertilizer, 
spray materials, machinery and other things 
needed on your type of 
farm if most of your 
neighbors are carrying on 
the same type of farming. 
Selecting the Farm 
In selecting a region we 
should pay special atten¬ 
tion to the soil, topog¬ 
raphy, the markets, the 
means of transportation 
and the climate. Soil, 
markets and climate prob¬ 
ably do more to determine 
the type of farming than 
any other three factors. 
In selecting a region^ for 
a certain type of farming 
it is well to consider also 
the regions which compete 
with this section and what 
advantages and dis'advan- 
tages each competing sec¬ 
tion has. 
In looking over a farm, 
one of the first factors to 
By C. E. LADD 
consider is the size of the farm and the pos¬ 
sibility of carrying on a business of profit¬ 
able size. A very small farm is incapable of 
returning a large profit unless devoted en¬ 
tirely to intensive crops. A very large farm 
contains a considerable risk and requires con¬ 
Trying to haul milk, hay or potatoes to mai'ket over bottomless dirt 
roads emphasizes the value of an improved road to any farm property 
siderable executive ability to make it profit¬ 
able. All farm management studies indicate 
that the family-sized farm is much more 
profitable than the smaller farm or the very 
large farm. This family-sized farm may be 
a farm of from 150 to 300 acres in general 
and dairy farming, and somewhat smaller 
than this in fruit growing, poultry or vegeta¬ 
ble growing. Sometimes it is advisable to 
purchase a small farm because there is a 
possibility of renting or purchasing adjoin¬ 
ing land some time in the near future. If 
In buying a farm do not lose sight of the fact that you are also buying a home. 
anyone is considering the possibility of re¬ 
selling a farm it is well to bear in mind that 
small farms sell more readily than large 
farms. 
The size of farm is not always indicated 
by the number of acres. Other measures 
are number of crop acres, number of cows 
which the farm is carrying, the number of 
cows which the farm can carry, acres 
of bearing fruit, number of hens 
kept, etc. 
Select a Farm with Good Field Layout 
Large, well shaped, level fields 
which are near the buildings can be 
worked much more economically than 
small or crooked or rough fields or 
those that are far distant from the 
buildings. With the invention and 
adoption of each new piece of farm 
machinery these factors become more 
important. Sometimes a farm has a 
very poor field arrangement which 
can easily be changed. In other 
cases a poor field arrangement is so 
determined by stone walls, gulleys, 
swamps, creeks and other obstruc¬ 
tions which are immovable or ex¬ 
pensive to move that a rearrange¬ 
ment is absolutely impossible. 
If all the manure must be hauled 
up hill or if all of the farm products 
must be hauled up hill to the barn, it requires 
expensive labor. If some of the tillable fields 
are so far distant that it requires several 
minutes of travel by man and team before 
field work is started, then these fields are 
very expensive to work. If pasture is far 
distant from the barns, the result is a waste 
of labor and often a loss of milk flow. 
A compact, economical farm layout with 
large well-shaped, level fields and pasture lo¬ 
cated within a reasonable distance of the 
buildings makes a farm worth a great deal 
more than one with a poor 
uneconomical layout. 
The Factor of Good Buildings 
With our present wage 
scales and the present 
prices of building ma¬ 
terials, building work is 
very expensive. Most 
eastern farms are so 
priced to-day that if the 
owner were to obtain bare 
land at a reasonable price, 
construct a very economi¬ 
cal house and a very eco¬ 
nomical barn, yet he could 
not sell the land and build¬ 
ings for anywhere near 
enough to pay for the total 
cost. Many eastern farms 
havo excellent buildings. 
If .the buildings must be 
rearranged, the cost of do¬ 
ing this must be added to 
the cost of the original 
{Continued on page 321) 
