HOW THE COTTON FARMER LIVES 233 



term, while those moving out are not enrolled during the 

 latter part of the term." 48 



The relation of living purchased to the cash receipts 

 from the cotton farm affords a problem full of interest 

 and difficulty. It has been shown that the living furnished 

 the farm family ranges around 40 per cent of the total 

 expenditures and is often less for the lower levels of 

 tenure. For each family, the food, fuel, and shelter from 

 the farm home tend to be a constant figure, while living 

 purchased varies with the fluctuations of agricultural 

 prosperity. Thus in 1918 and 1919, years of good farm 

 prices, the family living from the farm was only one- 

 fifth of the total family income for 2,967 families studied ; 

 in 1921 and 1922, years of agricultural depression, the 

 family living was about one-third of the total family in- 

 come from 3,597 farm families studied by the Depart- 

 ment. 47 Living from the farm thus serves as a balancing 

 factor to conserve in some measure the family's standards 

 during depressions. The wide fluctuations in the price 

 of cotton, it can be seen, give the extent of diversifica- 

 tion, on which the living from the farm depends, a most 

 important bearing on the standard of living. 



Mr. E. A. Goldenweiser 48 in 1916 estimated from a 

 statistical analysis of the 1910 Census returns that the 

 labor income of the average American farmer was about 

 $600, $200 of which he received in cash, and $400 he 

 secured in goods from the farm. 49 The estimate was based 

 on a gross farm income of $1,236 minus $512 paid for 



4 /6tU, p. 68. 



47 H. W. Hawthorne, The Family Living from, the Farm, Dept. of 

 Agriculture Bulletin 1338, p. 12. 



48 The Farmer's Income, Farmers' Bulletin 746, 1916. 

 49 76tU, p. 1. 



