The Young Farmer: Some Things He Should Know

debate and to which no general answer can be given. There are, however, certa

or purpose is a gross income of $1,000 or $3,000 or $5,000 a year, he

ng may bring this amount. If the land is especially adapted to potatoes, and this crop takes a prominent place in the rotation, 100 acres might be sufficient to retur

f farming common to the northern United States from 16 to 19 per cent. This represents, of course, a great deal of very poor farming. The income of prosperous farmers must be somewhat better than this. If we assume that by careful methods the gross income is 25% of the total investment, then an investment of $16,000 will be required to bring a gross income of

rk, where the investigation chanced to be made, the larger farms yielded the most profitable returns and that while present conditions exist, the si

income on 586 farms operated by the

s Nu

s Av

i

cr

a

co

ess 30

60 108

100 21

150 143

200 57

00 34

- -

ge 10

the operating owner or tenant, the size of the farm

farm and the skill in management, any further increase will increase the cost of operation, and as the increase continues eventually cause a decrease in profits. Assuming this to be true, it follows as a m

-- --- A --- --

Net profit Net P

e per farm pe

0 $800 $

0 900 4

0 960 4

0 980 4

0 960 4

0 900 3

0 800 3

0 660 3

0 480 3

260 2.

-- 2.

uld be obtained. In case B the net profit per farm increases until 480 acres are reached. Everyone is cautioned not to accept these figures as representing what would actually happen. All that can be said is that as the farm unit increases in size there will come a point at which the net profit per acre will decrease because of the physical difficulty of managing a large area, and, therefore, there is a limit to the size of a single farm. Fifteen thousand acres may lay in one tract and be o

different abilities. It would be as futile for one fitted to operate only an 80-acre farm to attempt to manage 320 acres as it would be unwise for the man capable of conducting 320 acres to confine his attention to 80 acres. Unfortunately

cres; fruits, 75 acres; dairy products, 120 acres; hay and grain, 159 acres; and live stock, 227 acres. Speaking in a very general way, only about one-half the land on these farms is in cultivated crops, while only 40% of the income may be from the prod