Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 17, Number 17, DeMotte, Jasper County, 21 March 1947 — FEWER, BIGGER FARMS TREND OVER NATION [ARTICLE]

FEWER, BIGGER FARMS TREND OVER NATION

Wartime Trend in Agriculture Fewer Farmers, Bigger Production Washington, March 20 The wartime trend in agriculture was thward fewer farms and bigger ones, fewer farmers and bigger production. r , . The census bureau, announcing comparative findings for 1940 and 1945, disclosed today that the value of farms jumped more than one-third to a total of $40,388,925,SQO. The* value of farm output far more than doubled—-from $7,813,q44,Q00 to $18,108,132,000. “Farm population decreased sharply,!” said the bureau, al- , though, it reported there was no figure for 1940 exactly comparable with the 1945 count of 23,558,488 farm dwellers. "Farmers are using more machinery,” the terse summary continued. “There are fewer farms hut more land in farms. More farms are operated by owners and fewer by tenants. Fewer farmers engage in off-farm work.” ! American farmers produced and sold more milk, kept more chickens, milked more cows, raised jnore sheep, hogs and cattle. But tluvy had fewer horses; the number dropped from 10,086,000 to 8,499,000. IT They harvested more corn, cotton, soybeans., tobacco” and Irish potatoes, threshed or combined more oats and wheat, and harvested more corn and cotton. The average farm in 1945 was 194.8 acres, as against 174/ acres five years earlier. At the same time the number of farms drop- ■ jied 1 from 0,090,799 to 5.859,159.