farming crop yields gradually declined. The average yield of wheat for the Willamette Valley during the early eighties was not far from 17 bushels per acre. The United States Census report shows that the average yield of wheat for Benton, Clackamas, Lane, Linn, Marion, Multnomah, Polk, Washington, and Yamhill Counties for the year 1880 was 14.9 bushels per acre. The practice of summer fallowing from one-fourth to one-third of the land each year and the production of wheat and oats to the exclusion of almost all other field crops has prevailed on the red hill or clay type of soil to the present time. On the silt loam or "valley" soil, on the other hand, radical changes in the type of farming have taken place. Clover and vetch were introduced during the eighties and early nineties, and the practice of summer fallowing has practically been abandoned on this type of soil. The influence of these leguminous crops on crop yields and the efficient management of these farms will be shown in the tables which follow. TYPES OF SOIL. The 212 farms which constitute the basis of this study are located on two distinct types of soil, Salem silt loam and Salem clay.' The Salem silt loam is locally known as "valley" or "prairie" soil. It occupies the level and gently rolling valley lands. The soil is a brown to black silt loam, 18 to 24 inches deep. The subsoil is a yellowish to red clay loam which becomes heavier with the depth. The Salem clay type is locally known as "red hill" soil. It occupies a series of rolling hills on either side of the "valley" or silt loam soil. The Salem clay soil consists of 12 to 15 inches of red clay, which is underlain by a clay of much the same color and texture as the surface soil. DEFINITIONS OF TERMS USED. Definitions of some of the terms used in this discussion may be found helpful in studying the tables which follow. Improved land.-The usable portion of the farm. It includes the tillable area and any portion of the farm that has been improved sufficiently to furnish fairly good pasturage. Rotation area. That portion of the farm upon which field crops are changed about from year to year. It includes the areas in field crops, summer fallow, and pasture in rotation. It does not include the area in fruit and garden. Field-crop area. That portion of the farm occupied by the field crops. 1 Salem silt loam and Salem clay are terms applied to these soils by the Bureau of Soils, U. S. Department of Agriculture, when making a soil survey in Marion and Polk Counties, 1903. Crop index. The yielding power of the soil of a given farm or group of farms expressed as a percentage of the average yielding power of the soil of all farms in the community.' Animal unit.-A mature horse or cow, or as many smaller animals as require the feed of a horse or cow, namely, 2 head of young cattle, 2 colts, 5 hogs, 10 pigs, 7 sheep, 14 lambs, 7 goats, 14 kids, or 100 hens. Productive animal unit.-Includes all animal units except work horses. Receipts. The gross income of the farms from all sources. Expenses.-The total amount necessary to conduct the farm business during the year. It includes, besides all cash outlay, depreciation of equipment and buildings and all unpaid family labor (excepting that of the operator) used in conducting the farm business. Farm income.-The difference between the gross receipts and the expenses. It is the amount available to the farm family for living, saving, and paying debts after the expenses of conducting the farm business during the year have been paid. It does not include what the farm furnished directly toward the family living. Percentage farm income is of capital invested.-Farm income does not include the amount the farm furnishes the family in the way of food, fuel, and the use of the farm dwelling. Neither do the expenses include the value of the operator's labor and the cost of his board. These two amounts, that is, what the farm furnished the family and the value of the operator's labor and the cost of his board, were so nearly equal on the farms studied that percentage farm income is of capital invested is used in this discussion to measure the efficiency of farming. 1 The crop index may be defined as the crop yields of a particular farm expressed in percentage of the average crop yields of all the farms in the community. It is found as in the following example: A particular farm produces The average yields of the above crops in the community are: Corn, 60 bushels; wheat, 32 bushels; oats, 40 bushels; and hay, 13 tons per acre. Hence, on the average, the areas required to produce the above quantities of the products mentioned are 2,000+60 33.3 acres of corn, Total 161.9 Thus, it requires 190 acres on the farm in question to produce what 161.9 acres produces on the average. Hence, 1 acre produces on this farm 161.9+190, or 85.3 per cent as much as the average acre of the community. USE AND VALUE OF LAND. The comparative size of farm, value of real estate per acre, and the use made of the farm area on the two types of soil are shown in Table I. TABLE I.-Relation of type of soil to use and value of land on 212 farms in Marion and Polk Counties, Oreg. (1912). It will be seen that the 68 clay farms averaged 85 acres larger and had a real-estate value $23 per acre less than the silt loam farms. There was 2.4 per cent more of the farm area in improved or usable land and 13.8 per cent less of the farm area lying idle as summer fallow on the silt loam farms than on the clay farms. The relation of these differences to the comparative efficiency of farming on the two types of soil will be indicated elsewhere. USE OF CAPITAL. The average investment and the use made of capital on the 212 farms are shown in Table II. The clay farms had an average of $3,873 more capital than the silt loam farms, and the silt loam farms had 0.6 per cent more of the total capital invested in working capital than the clay farms. TABLE II-Use of capital on 212 farms in Marion and Polk Counties, Oreg. (1912). TYPES OF FARMING. The number of farm records obtained in the survey made in Marion and Polk Counties in 1912 is not sufficient to justify comparisons of the many types of farming to be found in the Willamette Valley. For this reason all of the records of the survey except 212, those representing general or mixed farming, were discarded. The types of farming practiced on these 212 farms will be considered from the standpoint of the use made of the rotation area, the live stock kept, and the sources of income.. RELATION OF THE ROTATION AREA TO TYPE OF FARMING. Figure 1 represents graphically the use made of the rotation area on the two types of soil. Oats, it will be seen, were the most promi FIG. 1.-Utilization of rotation area on 212 farms in Marion and Polk Counties, Oreg. (1912). nent crop grown, and oats and wheat occupy relatively about the same percentage of the rotation area on the clay farms as on the silt loam farms. The types of farming followed on the two soils differ materially in the percentage of the rotation area devoted to clover seed, hay, and summer fallow. The prominence of the oat crop and the difference in the uses made of the rotation, it will be seen later, have considerable influence on the comparative profitableness of farming on the two soils. RELATION OF LIVE STOCK TO TYPE OF FARMING. Figure 2 shows the number of animal units kept per 100 acres of improved land, and the number of animals of each kind kept per farm. It will be seen that dairy cows were the most important productive animals kept on these farms. Work horses, it must be remembered, are not considered productive animals. Sheep stood second in importance on the clay farms, and hogs on the silt loam farms. The clay farms kept relatively less stock than the silt loam FIG. 2.-Number of animal units per 100 acres of improved land and number of animals per farm on 212 farms in Marion and Polk Counties, Oreg. (1912). farms. The total animal units kept per 100 acres of improved land on the clay farms were 10.02, as compared with 13.77 on the silt loam farms. These are very low complements of live stock. In other words, live stock on these farms was kept as a side line to cashcrop farming. FIG. 3.-Percentage of receipts and amounts received from different sources on 212 farms in Marion and Polk Counties, Oreg. (1912). RELATION OF SOURCES OF INCOME TO TYPE OF FARMING. The percentage of receipts from different sources for the two types of soil are shown in figure 3. The clay farms received 58.2 per cent of their receipts from the sale of crops, and the silt loam farms 58.1 per cent. The clay farms, it will be observed, received practically |