CHAPTER II.-SIZE OF FARMS. Introduction. This chapter presents the statistics of farms and farm property (including live stock) collected at the 1920 census, classified according to the size of farms. Comparative figures for 1910 are given for most of the items; and the number of farms classified according to size is given for the different censuses beginning with 1880. The size classification used in the censuses of 1860 and 1870 was based upon the area of improved land rather than upon the total farm acreage, so that no comparative data are available for censuses prior to 1880. In order to simplify the statistics, the three groups into which farms of less than 20 acres were divided in the last three censuses have been consolidated in most of the tables, the group comprising farms of 175 to 259 acres has been combined with that comprising farms of 260 to 499 acres, and the two 1920 groups comprising farms of 1,000 acres and over have been combined. In adopting the size classification which has been used in the censuses of 1900, 1910, and 1920, the Bureau of the Census took into account the fact that in large sections of the country the boundaries of many farms correspond more or less closely to the Government surveys of public lands. Government land has for the most part been sold or otherwise disposed of in quarter-sections of 160 acres or approximately that amount; and where these have been broken up, they have commonly been divided into "quarterquarters" or 40-acre tracts. The greater number of farms, therefore, in a large part of the country contain either 160 acres or some other multiple of 40 acres. In making any extensive study of the classification of farms in the United States by size, account must be taken of the geographic distribution of the farms of the different size groups. It will be found, for example, that most of the small farms are in the East and the South, while most of the very large farms are in the West, especially in the Mountain states. The brief references to the outstanding features of the United States totals, which form a part of the following paragraphs, are designed to be merely suggestive and to be supplemented by an examination of the detailed figures presented in the tables for divisions and states. Number and acreage of farms, by size: 1920 and 1910. More than two-thirds (68.7 per cent) of the farms in the United States in 1920 were between 20 and 175 acres in size. These farms were divided almost equally among three groups, from 20 to 49 acres, from 50 to 99 acres, and from 100 to 174 acres, respectively. The most important changes between 1910 and 1920 in the distribution of farms by size, as shown for the United States as a whole, were an increase in the number of farms in the two groups comprising farms of 500 acres and over, an increase in the number of farms from 20 to 49 acres, and a decrease in the number of farms from 100 to 174 acres. These changes in the size groups are much more significant when considered in detail by divisions and states. The average number of acres of all land per farm increased from 138.1 in 1910 to 148.2 in 1920, and the average acreage of improved land from 75.2 to 78. TABLE 1.-NUMBER AND ACREAGE OF FARMS IN THE UNITED STATES, BY SIZE: 1920 AND 1910. [Figures for divisions and states in Tables 10, 11, and 12.] 29 per cent), although the farms in this group formed only 15.6 per cent of the total number of farms. The group comprising farms of 1,000 acres and over represented only 1 per cent of the total number of farms, but contained 23.1 per cent of the total farm acreage in 1920. As might be expected, the percentage of farm land improved decreases as the size of the farm increases. In 1920, of the land in farms containing less than 20 acres, 89.8 per cent was improved, while the proportion was only 47.7 per cent for farms of 500 to 999 acres, and only 17.1 per cent for farms of 1,000 acres and over. The low percentage shown for the very large farms is due, in part, to the fact that most of these farms are in regions where agriculture is not yet very highly developed, and to the inclusion of large areas of grazing land and of rough land not suitable for cultivation. Number of farms, by size: 1880 to 1920.-The classification of farms according to size in 1880 and 1890 was somewhat different from that employed in 1900 and thereafter. Hence, in order to make comparisons, certain combinations of groups are required. Comparative figures for the censuses from 1880 to 1920, with the necessary rearrangement of groups, are presented in Table 3. The distribution of the total acreage of the farms among the size groups is, of course, radically different from the distribution of the number of farms. Of the seven main groups shown in Table 2, the one comprising farms from 175 to 499 acres represented the largest percentage of the total acreage (namely, TABLE 3.-NUMBER OF FARMS IN THE UNITED STATES, WITH PER CENT DISTRIBUTION, BY SIZE: 1880 TO 1920. [Figures for divisions and states in Table 11.] There have been slight changes from census to census in the instructions to the enumerators with regard to reporting very small farms, which changes doubtless affect somewhat the comparability of the figures for farms under 3 acres. In the census of 1900 in particular, the instructions were such that relatively large numbers of farms less than 3 acres in size were reported. In considering the figures for the very large farms, also, some allowance should be made for the fact that the amount of public land in use for grazing purposes has been gradually decreasing since 1880. The absorption of this land into farms (sometimes with little change in its use for agricultural pur Value of farm property, by size of farm: 1920 and 1910. In the distribution of the total value of farm property among the several groups of farms classified according to size, the farms of the larger size groups are considerably more important than they are in the distribution of the number of farms, but less impor tant than they are in the distribution of the total farm acreage. This results, of course, from the very low percentage of improved land in the farms of the largest size groups. Three-fourths (75.1 per cent) of the total value of all farm property was reported for farms from 50 to 499 acres in size; 33.9 per cent of the total was reported for farms in the single size group comprising farms of from 175 to 499 acres; and 26.8 per cent of the total was reported for farms of from 100 to 174 acres in size. The distribution of the value of land alone naturally follows rather closely the distribution of the value of all farm property, since the land in most cases represents a very large percentage of the total value of the farm. In the distribution of the value of the buildings, the smaller size groups show a larger percentage of the total value, since many of the smaller farms are equipped with expensive buildings. Domestic animals on farms, by size of farm: 1920 and 1910.-The distribution of the total value of live stock on farms in the United States in 1920 and 1910 among farms classified according to size is shown in Tables 4 and 5. More detailed information with regard to the distribution of the different kinds of domestic animals among the farms of the several size groups is given in Tables 8 and 9, which show the number and the value of the different kinds of animals, by size of farm, for 1920 and 1910. Tables for divisions and states.-In Tables 10, 11, and 13 to 17, inclusive, the data relating to farms classified by size are presented by geographic divisions and states. Table 12 shows, by divisions and states, the average acreage of all land per farm and also the average acreage of improved land per farm for each census from 1850 to 1920. TABLE 4.-VALUE OF FARM PROPERTY IN THE UNITED STATES, BY SIZE OF FARM: 1920 AND 1910. [Figures for divisions and states in Tables 13 and 15.] Total.. Under 20 acres.......... 100 to 174 acres.. 175 to 499 acres. 500 to 999 acres.. 1,000 acres and over. $77,924,100,338 $40,991,449,090 $36,932,651,248 90.1 $66,316,002,602 $34,801,125,697 $31,514,876,905 90. 6 $54,829,563,059 $28,475,674,169 $26,353,888,890 92.5 2,452,977,205 1,520,384,193 932,593,012 61.3 2,093,165,093 1,309,907,611 783,257,482 59.8 1,322,556,907 802,210,953 520,345,954 64.9 5,864,412,204 2,974,490,664 2,889,921,540 97.2 4,921,514,885 2,485,471,119 2,436,043,766 98.0 3,678,033,741 1,815,363,083 1,862,670,658 102.6 11,183,267,488 6,003,926,775 5,179,340,713 86.3 9,345,378,110 5,029,510,723 4,315,867,387 85.8 7,137,366,114 3,809,362,679 3,328,003,435 87.4 20,901,789,301 11,689,188,836 9,812,600,465 88.5 17,820,667,684 9,405,391,855 8,415,275,829 89.5 14,566,824,506 7,613,104,371 6,953,720,135 91.3 26,389,647,868 13,650,063,506 12,739,584,362 93.3|| 22,879,246,128 11,762,614,964 11,116,631,164 94.5 19,750,806,952 10,066,760,353 9,684,046,599 96.2 5,533,774,473 2,907,900,770 2,625,873,703 90.3 4,725,558,030 2,483,160,122 2,242,397,908 90.3 4,192,956,165 2,210,728,394 1,982,227,771 89.7 5,598,231,799 2,845,494,346 2,752,737,453 96.7 4,530,472,672 2,325,069,303 2,205,403,369 94.9 4,181,018,674 2,158,144,336 2,022,874,338 93.7 Total........ $11,486,439,543 $6,325,451,528 $5,160,988,015 81.6 $3,594,772,928 $1,265,149,783 $2,329,623,145 184.1 $8,013,324,808 $4,925,173,610 $3,088,151,198 62.7 987,863,952 81.0 608,088,704 224,064,159 1,461,555,694 81.5 1,031,828,610 365,417,498 384,024,545 171.4 1,229,800,674 382,005,244 750,351,893 1,318,379,483| 270,179,682 70.7 479,448,781 63.9 730,913,524 55.4 175 to 499 acres. 3,128,439,176 1,695,854,611 1,432,584,565 84.5 1,141,309,585 863,089,623 57.3 500 to 999 acres. 532,601,865 272,431,728 260,170,137 95.5 242,492,917 182,529,031 109.3 164,363,890 80,052,723 162,440,194 202.9 565,723,526 344,687,925 221,035,601 64.1 460,467,994 442,927,243 96.2 TABLE 5.—PER CENT DISTRIBUTION OF THE VALUE OF FARM PROPERTY IN THE UNITED STATES, BY SIZE OF FARM: 1920 AND 1910. TABLE 6.—AVERAGE VALUE OF FARM PROPERTY PER FARM, BY SIZE OF FARM, FOR THE UNITED STATES: |