The courier-index., 1917-10-05
THE EARMARKS OF
 SUCCESSFUL FARMS
cOvERNMT EXPERT WHO MADE SOIL SURVEY IN LEE COUNTY STILL TALKING ABOUT CON- OPTIONS HERE.
(By A. D. mcNair)

(By A. Q. McNair1 U. s. Office of Farm Management:
 There are always reasons why some farmers are successful and others are not. and it is the busi- ness of investigators connected with the United States Office of Farm Management to find them. In this article the earmarks Of ten success ful farmers are pointed out in con- nection with the economic survey recently made near Marianna and Marvell. Ark, which survey covered ! the farm business for 1916.
 On that survey 50 farms were ! studied and the economic data avera ged and then the ten most sue cessfuI farms were selected from the ] 50 and comparisons made between l the best farms and the average of 1 all farms. and in this comparison it | is shown that the superiority of the most successful farms was not mere 1 ly in one thing but in a variety of l things.
 l In the matter of size. the most sue I cessfuI farms contained an average 1 of 166 acres, of which 129 acres were 1 in crops. whereas the average farm ! of those studied contained 104 acres, of which 7S acres were in crops. | Expressed in another way we may 1 say that the former were seven mule farms, whereas the latter were 1 five mule farms Large plantations, l however were ruled out of this in- vestigation. so that no farms or plan 1 tations were studied which had more { than 200 acres of crops.
 l With regard to cotton yield there | was practically no difference between ! the average farms and the most sue cessful ones. but the yield was high anyway for the 1916 crops, being 319 [ pounds of lint per acre for the whole I 50 farms. The yield of corn, how l ever. was 2T bushels per acre on the ;. best farms compared with 25 bushels ' on all farms. or a difference of two 1 bushels per acre
 Efficiency of Labor
 In the efficiency of labor of men | and mules the successful farms stood ! we'll ahead of he average Fech family tended an average of 32.l \ acres of crops oa ,he fofInes and fl PTS acres on the latter. or differ N ence of 43 acres per family Each | mule. also. tended IS acres of crops | of the most successful farms and \ only 158 acres on the average farms, ' or a difference of 22 acres of crops N per mule.
 l Another way of showing the diff ' ference between the best and the average farms is to state the pro- Y duction of bales of cotton and bush- els Of corn per family and per mule TOT this production is more signifi- \ cant and more important than the
 production per acre. The cotton pro- duction for the 10 best farms was 1O.33 bales per family against S.46
 per family for the entire 50 farms, i or an excess of l 7-S bales per family on the better farms. Likewise the production per mule was SIT bales on the better farms, compared with
 493 on the better farms.
 The ten successful farms were also ahead in the production of corn. It may be inferred by some people that ! these farms which had a high pro- duction of cotton per family and per l mule were short on corn production,
 but such was not the case as may be seen from the fact that the ten | most successful farms made 252 bushels of corn per family against 22S bushels for the average farms. Also the production per mule was ! 139 bushels for the ten farms con- 1 pared with l2S bushels for the aver 1 age farm. or a difference of II bush els
 Financial Results
 All of the foregoing factors of pro- duction had their influence on the financial results which differed more widely than did any of the single l factors. The income from labor and management on the ten best farms averaged S2.6o7. but on the average farm it was but little more than half as much being sl.372 per farm This average labor income was ex- cellent but it was so far below the 10 best that it looks small in com ! parison.
 What is the Labor Income
 By income from labor and manage ment. or. more briefly, the labor in- ! come. is meant the amount the farm
 CT makes net, by means from hls labor and management as distin- guished from his investment. The 4 farmer is charged with all farm ex-
 penses and he is gwen, on paper. a fair interest on his investment or
 the value of his property and then II there is anything left it is called the
 labor income and this income IS set
 as measure of a farmers success.