ffualified for the Program. Specifically, the following concise estimates can 

 he made of the resources enrolled in the Soil Bank in the period 1956-59. 



Table 6. Present and pre-Soil Bank employment status and number of 



persons seeking non-farm employment from 26 wliole units 



with 4 or more cows or equivalent enrolled in the Program 



PRESENT EMPLOYMENT STATUS 



Units 



Retired or widowed 8 



Changed farm, still farming, cattle dealer 8 



Painter, carpenter, plumber 3 



Mill work (including saw mill) 3 



Junk dealer 1 



Odd jobs 3 



Total 26 



PRE-SOIL BANK EMPLOYMENT STATUS 



Number with non-farm jobs 10 



Number without non-farm jobs 16 



Total 26 



CHANGE IN LABOR FORCE 



Number seeking non-farm jobs not previously working in agriculture* 4 



* Net figure after adjustments for combination of non-farm work and retirement. 



Unit Numbers. A total of 120 whole units and 9 part-units were enrolled 

 in the Soil Bank. Of the 120 whole units enrolled, only 26 could be classed 

 as commercial units, and even then, 10 of the operators of these units 

 held nonfarm jobs before enrolling. Most of the units enrolled were oper- 

 ated as part-time farms or merely held as rural properties selling hay. 

 Many were not actively farmed as complete units as far back as 1940. 

 Financially, the Program was a better alternative for owners of these lands 

 than renting to farmers in the area at little or even no return. Seventy-nine 

 percent of the whole units enrolled were these noncommercial type rural 

 units. Many of these rural units would probably still be producing hay for 

 sale or be used by local farmers if there had been no Program. 



It is more difficult to estimate how many of the 26 commercial-type units 

 enrolled in the Program would still be in operation as farms had there been 

 no Program. During the last few decades, the annual attrition rate in 

 farms has averaged about 18 per year. The fact that several of the oper- 

 ators who enrolled retired upon joining the Program would indicate that 

 at least some of the operators would have left agriculture, although the 

 farms as such might have continued with new managers. From a careful 

 study of farm records and trends in the area, it is estimated that the Pro- 

 gram removed about 10 farms that would otherwise still be in operation. 



Cropland. A total of 5,204 acres were enrolled in the Program. This is 

 17 percent of the cropland in the County. Of the whole farms enrolled, 

 the total acreage amounted to 5,128 acres. Sixty-three percent of this 



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