40 RURAL NEW YORK 



Table I. Distribution of Edral Population 



1910 Total rural population 1,928,120 



1910 Total country population 1,575,826 



1917 Total farm population 830,517 



1917 Total men and boys over 14 years 339,019 



1917 Total women and girls over 14 years 271,333 



1916 Number of hired men 104,332 



1917 Number of hired men 88,310 



1918 Number of hired men 47,433 



1917 Percentasre of farms having hired men 21.1 



1918 Number of farms 200,903 



While the figures for 1910 and 1917 are not en- 

 tirely comparable, yet they are closely related. 



This tabulation shows that 43 per cent of the rural 

 population actually live on farms, and that about 

 40 per cent of that farm population is men and boys 

 fourteen years of age or older. There is an average 

 of 1.7 men and boys to a farm and as the average 

 size of farm is 95 acres, the average amount of land 

 handled a man is 56 acres. However, the average 

 number of crop acres a farm is only 41 acres and the 

 number of crop acres handled a man is 24 acres. 

 By adding to the number of men the number of 

 women and girls who work in the field, the crop acre- 

 age a person would be reduced to about 20 acres. 



The rapid decrease in the number of hired men on 

 farms in recent years indicates the difficulty of the 

 labor problem on the farm. An indication of the 

 unsettled social conditions is found in the propor- 

 tions of males to females on farms, which in 1917 

 were 1.2 and 1. 



A relief map of the State representing the lowest 

 elevations by the darkest color and the highest ele- 



