PART-TIME FARMING 105 A 



ave to spend in outside employment, or how large irnist be the agricultural 

 output of an operator engaged primarily in some other occupation, before 

 either of them can be classified as a part-time farmer. For the purposes of 

 the present study each operator who spent two or more months a year in 

 some outside work in addition to his agricultural activities has been given 

 this classification. Althougli the limitation tluis established was more or 

 less arbitrary, it fitted f;iirly well the conditions existing in the areas 

 covered by tiie investigation. It was hirge enough to exclude a numl)er 

 of regular farmers who occasionally performed a little outside work in 

 their vicinity, and on the other hand it made it possible to take account 

 of all those operators who obtained from outside employment a substantial 

 part of their incomes. This definition of a part-time farmer was applied 

 in each case to tlie head of the family who carried on his agricidtural 

 activities himself or witli the help of iiis family, or with some occasional 

 outside he)]). 



In the town of Iloideii, where a record was taken of all part-time 

 farming enterprises, no limit was set as to the size of landholdings or 

 the amount of agricultural output; but in tiie Lowell and Taunton areas, 

 where a si)ecial group of part-time farmers was investigated, only tliose 

 were included whose agricultural outj^ut amounted to at least $100. 



A distinction was also made between tlie part-time farmer and the 

 part-time farming enterprise. These two do not necessarily coincide. 

 Cases were found where heads of families were devoting to their farming 

 activities only part of their working time, iiut in addition to this their 

 grown-u}) sons or hired men worked on the farm on a full-time basis. In 

 those cases the operators tiiemselves were ))art-time farmers, but their 

 enterprises were regular farms and in this study were treated as regular 

 farming enterprises. If, however, the operator himself and the mend)ers 

 or his family were all working on the farm on a part-time basis, the en- 

 terprise was classed as jiart-time farming, even though occasionally some 

 hired help was used. 



The retired i)eople who lived on small landholdings, obtaining from 

 farming only a part of their income and depending for their living largely 

 on receipts from some other source, were also considered in this study as 

 engaged in part-time farming. 



Regular and Seasonal Part-Time Farmers 



On the basis of the general adjustment of their working time, part- 

 time farmers were found to be of two distinct types. One is represented 

 by the operators who are regularly engaged in some employment outside 

 of their landholdings and who devote to their agricultural enterprises only 

 the time left from their daily work. The other type is found in the 

 seasonal part-time farmers who spend all their time on the land through the 

 farming season and hire out only after this season is over. The propor- 

 tion of time any operator devoted to agricultnre and other occupational 

 pursuits varied considerably in both types of part-time farming, depend- 

 ing in each individual case upon the size of the enterprise, condition of 

 out.side employment, and amount of help supplied by the operator's fam- 

 ily. Specialization in the growing of vegetables, which was practiced by 

 a number of operators in Taunton area, was found to be well adapted to 

 seasonal part-time farming. On the other iiand, the regular part-time 

 farmers specialized largely in small dairy and poultry enterprises, where 



