SIZE OF FARM
The size of the farm is another of those questions on which there is endless debate and to which no general answer can be given. There are, however, certain rather definite principles which may help in settling an individual problem.
The size of the farm is related to the income per acre. If ones ideal or purpose is a gross income of $1,000 or $3,000 or $5,000 a year, he must consider how large a farm will be necessary to bring this return.
Assume, for the sake of discussion, it is desired to obtain a gross income of $4,000. In the eastern United States 200 acres of tillable land devoted to general farming 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 return the income named. Likewise a 100-acre retail milk dairy farm may produce a similar result. Forty acres devoted to truck farming or market gardening may be sufficient.
There is another way that the size of the farm needed may be estimated. There is a general relation between the gross income and the amount invested. In 1900 the gross income of the farms of the United States was 18 per cent of the total investment, which includes land, buildings, tools, and live stock. The average gross income varied for the different types of 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 $4,000. While it is true that the gross income has no necessary relation to net income or profit, yet it is well to remember that a gross income is a necessary antecedent of a net income. The net profit from the production of a bushel of wheat, a dozen of eggs, or a pound of butter is of comparatively small consequence unless a sufficient quantity is produced.
A recent investigation by the Cornell station appears to show that with the type of farming now existing in Tompkins and Livingston counties, New York, where the investigation chanced to be made, the larger farms yielded the most profitable returns and that while present conditions exist, the size of farms is likely to increase rather than decrease. The fundamental reason seems to be the substitution of horse-drawn machinery for hand labor.
The following table shows the labor income on 586 farms operated by the owners, classified according to size:
Acres | Number of farms | Average size (acres) | Labor income |
| 30 or less | 30 | 21 | $168 |
| 31 to 60 | 108 | 49 | 254 |
| 61 to 100 | 214 | 83 | 373 |
| 101 to 150 | 143 | 124 | 436 |
| 151 to 200 | 57 | 177 | 635 |
| over 200 | 34 | 261 | 946 |
| ---- | ---- | ||
| Average | 103 | $415 |
While the larger the farm, the more prosperous was the operating owner or tenant, the size of the farm did not seem to affect the profit of the landlord.
The amount of land one individual may own is unlimited; the size of the farm unit is limited. After a farm unit has reached a certain size, depending upon the type of farming, the general arrangement of the 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 mathematical necessity that as the farm increases in size the total profits will increase as the farm increases up to a given point and then the profits will decrease. The following table illustrates this law:
| Size of | --- A --- | --- A --- | --- B --- | --- B --- |
| farm | Net profit | Net profit | Net Profit | Net Profit |
| acres | per acre | per farm | per acre | per farm |
| 160 | $5.00 | $800 | $5.00 | $800 |
| 200 | 4.50 | 900 | 4.75 | 950 |
| 240 | 4.00 | 960 | 4.50 | 1,080 |
| 280 | 3.50 | 980 | 4.25 | 1,190 |
| 320 | 3.00 | 960 | 4.00 | 1,280 |
| 360 | 2.50 | 900 | 3.75 | 1,350 |
| 400 | 2.00 | 800 | 3.50 | 1,400 |
| 440 | 1.50 | 660 | 3.25 | 1,430 |
| 480 | 1.00 | 480 | 3.00 | 1,440 |
| 520 | .50 | 260 | 2.75 | 1,430 |
| 560 | -- | -- | 2.50 | 1,400 |
In both case A and case B it is assumed that the greatest net profit per acre is to be obtained with 160 acres, and that the net profit per acre when the farm is of that size is $5. In case A it is assumed that the net profit would decrease $1 for each 80 acres added, while in case B the decrease is assumed to be only one-half as rapid. In the first instance the net profit per farm increases until 280 acres are reached, when the net profit per farm decreases, until at 560 acres no profit would 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 owned by one individual, firm or corporation, but its economic management requires for purely physical reasons, not to mention others, that it be managed in several units more or less distinct from one another. Just what the size of this unit will be no one knows and it will vary with the type of farming, the type of farmer and many other circumstances. For example, a very common unit for a tenant cotton farm is between 20 and 50 acres, both the product and the farmer being a limiting factor.
Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned from a study of this table is that it is wise for some men to operate a farm of 320 acres, others of 160 acres and still others of 80 acres, because each size of farm presents a task suited to 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 while this principle is not difficult to perceive and is easily stated, it is practically impossible to make any application of it to an individual case. Only time and the inexorable laws of competition will adjust men to their several tasks.
It will be of interest to note what influence in actual practice the type of farming has upon the size of the farm. The census reports the average size of all farms in the United States as 147 acres, with the different types as follows: Vegetables, 65 acres; 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 products which cause the farm to be thus classified. The young farmer will do well to have these figures in mind when he starts out in life, for while they are not to be followed literally, they give him a measuring stick with which to compare his operations.