M.S.

In September, 1933, the Soil Conservation Service established a demonstration area in the Wreck Island Creek Watershed of Appomattox County, Virginia. In order to secure information as to the farm practices followed in the area, the Soil Conservation Service and the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station conducted a farm management survey of the area during the summer of 1936, covering the 1935 farm business. This survey was repeated in the summer of 1937, covering the 1936 farm business. The records of the 1936 farm business are the basis of this study. The data were secured by the survey method, by trained enumerators. A total of 135 records were taken, of which 2 were discarded because they were too small to be classed as farms, and 25 were omitted because 50 percent or more of the total business receipts were obtained from non-farm sources. The remaining 110 form the basis for this study. The purposes of this study were to show conditions in the area for the year 1936, determine and measure the importance of factors affecting income, and to make comparisons, where possible, with the results of the 1935 study. / Master of Science

The problem of this study arose out of the need of farm operators to adjust their resources as needed over a period of time. / Master of Science

M.S.

The minimum number of tree heights that are necessary, with a probability of 0.95, to obtain a merchantable plot volume estimate of loblolly pine within ± 3, 5, and 10% of the volume observed if all plot trees had been measured for height were determined for all combinations of volume estimation techniques and sample designs examined in this study. The volume estimation techniques examined in this study were: 1) a volume equation using measured tree diameters and either measured heights or height estimates obtained from a plot height-diameter relationship, 2) a volume equation using strata average diameter and average height, and\ 3) a strata volume/basal area ratio estimator. The examined sampling designs were: 1) a simple random sample, 2) a stratified random sample, 3) a stratified systematic sample, and 4) a purposive sample. Both combined and separate stratified estimators were used for volume estimation techniques 2 and 3 when a stratified sample design was used. Of all the possible combinations of volume estimation techniques and sample designs, two combinations, volume estimation technique 1 and a stratified random sample, and volume estimation technique 1 and a purposive sample, are the only combinations that have sample sizes of no more than 30 trees for all three accuracy levels and require the smallest or nearly the smallest number of sample tree heights at these accuracy levels. / Master of Science

M.S.

M.S.

The problem considered in this study arose from the need for an emperlcal analysis of the sale value of land to determine if the increased price benefits of the governmental flue-cured tobacco program have been absorbed by higher land rents. If acreage allotments giving the right to produce tobacco under the program are capitalized into farmland values to an appreciable extent, the program objective of increasing farm incomes would be partially defeated through higher rents. The objective of this study was to determine the extent to which allotments have been capitalized into land values. Data on sale value of farms and factors expected to influence the farm sale value were secured from primary public record sources for the four-year period from 1954 to 1957 in two distinctly different flue-cured tobacco regions--Pittsylvania County, Virginia, and Wilson, Greene, and Pitt Counties, North Carolina. These data were analyzed by a multiple regression statistical technique designed to measure the value of an acre of tobacco allotment es a right to produce. The statistical coefficients indicated that an acre of tobacco allotment increased in value from $962 in 1954 to $1,673 in 1957 for Pittsylvania County and from $1,830 to $3,308 for Wilson, Greene, and Pitt Counties. The size of the values for an acre of tobacco allotment as well as the increase in values over the four-year period during which allotments were reduced under the program by 33 percent indicate that an appreciable proportion of the price·rais1ng benefits of the program have been capitalized into land values. / Master of Science

There are great variations in returns to different farms for a given year, due to differences in (1) size of business, (2) labor efficiency, (3) rates of production, and (4) balance of the farm business. The dominant factor is size of business, since it exerts influence on each of the other factors. The problem of the small farm has been much discussed, but little studied. The problem becomes more and more pronounced as each generation passes on and leaves smaller estates to be divided among descendents. Small farms have usually been studied in comparisons with large farms, seldom being given attention as separate problems. Previous studies have shown that small farms are less efficient users of labor and capital than large farms. The small farm has difficulty in furnishing productive work for the labor force throughout the year. The small farm cannot afford as much equipment as a large farm, and has difficulty in using efficiently that equipment which it can afford. With its equipment inferior to that of the large farm the small farm is handicapped in the struggle to keep rates of production up and costs of production down. The small farm cannot diversify its sources of income to the extent that a large farm can, because it must specialize in a small number of enterprises in order to be at all efficient in any. There is a limit to the receipts that a small farm can make, just as there is a limit to the receipts that can be had from a single cow, from a flock of 10 hens, or an acre of tobacco. The need for a study of small farms was given consideration in 1940, when graduate students in agricultural economics at V.P.I. took records of the 1940 farm businesses on 300 farms scattered throughout Pittsylvania County. The records used for this study gave itemized lists of all receipts and expenses, crop and livestock production and sales, inventories of property on hand at the end of the year, other sources of income, and other information necessary to make an analysis of each farm business. In the tobacco section, the tobacco acreage is a good indicator of the size of the farm business. A study of the farms in the Banister River Drainage Basin of Pittsylvania County showed an average of 7.3 acres of tobacco per farm, and a range of 1.0 to 45.0 acres of tobacco. 1/ For the purposes of this study a small farm is defined as one that has 5.0 acres of tobacco or less. An average of 2.9 acres of tobacco was grown by the farm included in this study, with a range of 0.1 to 5.0 acres of tobacco. This study covers only the year 1940. Relationships that held true for that year may or may not be valid for subsequent years due to changes in economic conditions. The purpose of this study is to describe the 300 small farms and to show the effect of factors that affect the returns to a farm business. / Master of Science

The use of cleaned-in-place milk pipe lines has been increasing for the past several years, particularly in conjunction with the farm bulk tank. It offers an opportunity for increasing operating efficiency by reducing the amount of labor needed for the milking operations. For many dairymen who have either outgrown or worn out existing facilities it is the least expensive and most efficient way of improving their milk handling facilities. The use of pressure in circulation cleaning of permanent milk pipe lines has been developed to give satisfactory results in the dairy plant. This method involves the use of considerable extra equipment which may be used for other purposes. Pipe line milker installations on most dairy farms are cleaned by the use of vacuum circulation rather than by pressure circulation cleaning. This enables the dairy farmer to utilize the same vacuum pump for circulation cleaning of the pipe line that is used for the milking operation. This eliminates the purchase of extra equipment that would be of no value except in the cleaning operation. Our present knowledge of the factors involved in the installation, the maintenance, and the care of cleaned-in-place milk pipe lines on the farm is limited. Dairymen who are now using such a system, and those considering its use, need more scientific information on the cleaning and sanitizing aspects of the farm milk pipe line installations. Cleaning compounds which have been designed for hand cleaning operations are commonly used for pipe line cleaning. It is impossible to obtain maximum cleaning efficiency of pipe lines with these compounds because they are milder in their alkaline action than compounds designed for in-place cleaning. The chemical activity of compounds designed for in-place cleaning is increased by the maintenance of a temperature of 140 °F. or higher. The circulation temperature range of 140 to 160 °F. as recommended by the several detergent manufacturers is difficult to maintain in actual practice. Many detergents recommended for circulation cleaning are not suitable for use in all types of farm-in-place installations due to the excessive foaming of the detergents in solution when placed under vacuum. This excessive foaming causes considerable difficulty in circulation operations and prevents proper solution contact with the pipe line surface. The problem of cleaning and sanitizing cleaned-in-place pipe lines on dairy farms is confounded by the absence of standardization in the engineering aspects of cleaned-in-place systems. The introduction of shortcuts or laxity in following the proper cleaning and sanitizing procedures may result in the lowering of milk quality. The primary objective of this investigation was to evaluate the cleaning and sanitizing ability of a number of cleaning compounds used in the vacuum circulation cleaning of a pipe line milker in a stanchion type dairy barn. A second objective was to evaluate the effect of circulation temperature ranges on the cleaning efficiency of the detergents. / Master of Science