WSP01593

• File Number: 8220.127.J
• Description: Savery-Pot Hook Project
• Basin: Yampa/White
• Water Division: 6
• Date: 1/1/1964
• Author: Kearl W. G.
• Title: The Savery-Pot Hook Reclamation Project: Analysis of Economic Effects on Existing Ranches & New Farm Units
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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Size of Farm Unit

One of the objectives of this study was to investigate size of farm units as

they relate to economical operation of the project. Basic reclamation law provides

for a limitation of 160 acres of Class I land in a single ownership, or 320 acres

in community property.
The reasons for selecting 160 acres as the limit are at best vague. This lim-

itation may have been selected as a matter of convenience since it represented 1/4

section of land or stood on a purely arbitrary basis. l:'hen this limitation was

placed in the law, it perhaps represented an economical-sized farm unit; however,

many changes have occurred in agriculture since then. Total number of farms in

the United States has decreased and average farm size has increased. Machinery and

equipment for operation of farms has become more powerful and efficient, and the

acreage of crops which one man can care for has vastly increased. The levels of

real income in both the farm economy and the non-farm economy have increased, and

the standards which families have for consumption expenditures, including education,

have all increased. While these changes in farm technology as well as in standards

of living have been occurring, the limitation of farm acreage on a reclamation

project has been held relatively fixed and is now completely outmoded.

In Wyoming the average size of farm has increased from 778 acres of total

land in 1910 to 3,715 acres in 1959. The acreage of irrigated lands in farms

reporting irrigation increased from 180 acres to 229 acres. Corresponding data

for Carbon, which is the I'fyominl' county that includes the project area, shows a

change from 298 to 557 acres of irrigated land per irrigated farm. Total land per

farm in Carbon County increased from 3,514 acres in 1910 to 9,994 acres in 1959.

These data do not necessarily imply anything about the appropriate size. They are

indicative, however, of changes which have taken place in agriculture since

passage of the Reclamation Act.