A striking feature of the large farms was the presence of two or more 

 family members as full-time workers or operators. The most frequent form 

 was father and son. One might reason that this was usually a more suc- 

 cessful operating combination than one operator plus hired help. There 

 was also considerable indication that more than one generation was needed 

 to accumulate or develop the capital represented by an economically effec- 

 tive farm of the fairly large size. 



In contrast, operators of small farms got started as operators rather 

 late, after long non-farm work periods. They had received little assistance. 

 Many started on small or otherwise inadequate places. Saving received 

 greater emphasis than credit as a source of growth capital. They frequently 

 expressed reluctance to use more than very moderate amounts of credit. 

 They frequently had some income from other work. 



Operators of the large medium and small medium size groups had varied 

 capital accumulation experience but on the whole represented rather definite 

 gradations between the large and small size groups. Many were aware that 

 they needed more physical capital, and there were rather numerous in- 

 stances of misfortune. This suggests that they might readily use more credit 

 to improve their positions. 



Chapters III and IV showed that farmers could not pay for farms out of 

 their earnings unless they, through renting or 100 percent credit, had the 

 use of the capital of large farms. Farmer experience bears this out and 

 shows that, for most farmers, personal saving and cautious use of credit 

 have resulted in ownership of only small farms. For the most part these 

 have failed to secure ownership of what we call "efficient" size farms. The 

 reasons for this failure are evident in Chapters III and IV and the solu- 

 tion might well be either an expansion of suitable renting arrangements, 

 or an expansion of practically 100 percent credit, or both. 



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