572 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



colonization and settlement companies oj)eratin^ in this re<;ion have 

 been visited, and, in addition to this, tyi)ical settlement pi'ojects are 

 beintj extensively studied. 



Tn connection with a com])rehensive study of land utilization in the 

 Xoithern (ireat Plains, now being carried on as a dei)artment project, 

 the Office of Farm Management and Farm Kconomics has assimied re- 

 sponsibility for the study of land tenure and of relationship of land 

 tenure to range control and the utilization of farm land, and also 

 the methods oi settlement which have been and are now employed in 

 the development of this region. 



A special study of the relation of land tenure to range control and 

 range utilization in Arizona and New Mexico has been completed in 

 cooperation with the Forest Service. 



In order to determine the degree to Avhich the Federal Farm Loan 

 System has promoted the acquisition of land by landless farmers, sev- 

 eral thousand questionnaires Avere sent out, to which about ^..^OO replies 

 were received. The results of this investigation will soon be readj'' 

 for publication. 



FARM LIFE STUDIES. 



During the year cooperative arrangements have been made between 

 the rural life section of the Office of Farm Management and Farm 

 Economics and various State colleges where instructors in rural so- 

 ciologj^ are employed. 



Investigations in the social aspects of farm tenancy are perhaps the 

 most important studies carried on by the section of farm life during 

 the year. ScAen States — (Georgia, North Dakota, Missouri, South 

 Carolina, Maryland. Iowa, and Nebraska^have cooperated in these 

 studies. Twenty-five hundred farms and farm families in 20 differ- 

 ent communities were intensively studied. It is expected that the re- 

 sults of this series of studies Avhen tabulated will throw much new 

 light on the Avhole subject of farm tenancy. 



Studies in the social aspect of sales of farms have been carried on 

 in five counties in Indiana. The number of sales in each county has 

 been ascertained, the buyers and sellers located, the human side of the 

 sale inquired into, and the human as well as the economic reasons for 

 selling and buying brought out. 



One farm community in each of three States — New York, Mary- 

 land, and West Virginia — has been studied, in cooperation with the 

 colleges of agriculture. The type of study has been historical and 

 analytical, covering a period of the last hundred years. The special 

 questions at issue in this community analysis are the " migration of 

 young people from the farms to the town and city"; the "influence 

 of farm communities upon national life"; "the remedy for over- 

 migration." The results of these studies will be published during the 

 coming year. 



The differences in social life in communities which are founded 

 upon different types of agriculture are being studied in communities 

 of the dairy, grain, and truck type of farming. Whether the people 

 of different types of farming ctiffer, and if so, in what respect they 

 and their institutions differ, are the questions at issue. 



Two State colleges — Wisconsin and New York — wish to analyze 

 counties into primary population groups, in order to ascertain the 



