32 BULLETIN 1068, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The share-cropper stage is third in importance, considered from 

 the standpoint of the number who have been in the stage, and fourth, 

 considered from the standpoint of the per cent of time spent in it. 

 The average age of entry into the stage is materially increased by the 

 fact that 46 out of the 151 men who had at some time been croppers 

 were croppers for the first time by reversal from a higher stage, en- 

 tering the cropper stage at an average age of 32. The remaining 105 

 operators who had been croppers entered at an average age of 25, the 

 same average age at which operators entered the share-tenant stage. 



In point of number of operators involved and time spent in the stage 

 the share-tenant stage has been by far the most important in the ten- 

 ure history of the operators, nearly 86 per cent of them having been 

 share tenants, spending thus 44 per cent of the aggregate time worked 

 by all operators since they began farming for themselves. Operators 

 who had been share tenants spent on an average 10 years each as 

 share tenants, which was twice the time operators had farmed as 

 croppers. 



The data on the cash-tenant stage show how unimportant this 

 stage has been in the tenure history of the individuals, since not quite 

 1 per cent of the aggregate time that operators had been working for 

 themselves had been spent as cash tenants. 



The owner-additional stage, also, had been used by but few opera- 

 tors, yet this stage is becoming increasingly important, and is already 

 of much greater importance than the data would indicate. Of the 

 40 operators who have been owners additional, 32 have used the stage 

 in the past 5 years, 3 used it from 5 to 10 years ago, and only 5 used 

 it 10 years or more ago. 



The important function of this stage is that of enabling the man 

 who owns land to expand his business to fit his developing capacity 

 as an operator when he can not find adjoining land for sale or does 

 not have funds to buy it. Thirteen of the 26 operators who are now 

 owners additional, and operate on an average 131 acres each, were 

 formerly owner operators, farming an average of 85 acres, indicating 

 that these men used the owner- additional stage to make a considerable 

 expansion in the size of their operating unit. 



The owner-operator stage is the tenure goal of practically all op- 

 erators, and it is to be supposed that some have entered it and failed 

 to maintain the status. Over one-third of all operators have been 

 owner operators, but only about one-fifth of them are now in the 

 stage. Thirty-two, or 24.8 per cent of the 129 operators who have 

 been owner operators are now in some status below the owner addi- 

 tional status. 



From the standpoint of total time spent in the stage by all operators, 

 the owner-operator stage is second only to that of the share tenant. 



