38 BULLETIN 1068, L T . S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



time or before, they became owners. The average wealth thus re- 

 ceived was $3,578, and the operators receiving it attained the owner 

 stage an average of 3.6 years sooner than did the owners who received 

 no fortuitous wealth. In other words, each $1,000 received fortui- 

 tously shortened by about 1 year the average time required to attain 

 ownership. 



It is interesting to note . that owners receiving fortuitous help 

 shunned the cropper stage and made use of the farm-hand stage 

 more than did those who received no fortuitous assistance. The 

 number of operators who had been farm hands, in the group receiv- 

 ing fortuitous help, was 3.6 times as many as the number who had 

 been croppers. On the other hand, of the group receiving no for- 

 tuitous assistance, only 1.8 times as many had been farm hands as 

 had been croppers. Operators receiving fortuitous assistance and 

 who had been farm hands spent an average time of 5.4 years in the 

 stage as compared with an average of 4.6 years spent by those receiv- 

 ing no fortuitous assistance, while of the . operators who had been 

 croppers, those receiving fortuitous assistance were croppers for. an 

 average period of 1.8 years, and those receiving no fortuitous assist- 

 ance were croppers for an average of 2.6 years. 



Calculations on the effects of receipts of fortuitous wealth on the 

 time required to reach share tenancy 37 showed that for each $703 

 received fortuitously before, or at the time of attaining tenancy, the 

 average time of attaining the stage was shortened by one year. 



About 89 per cent of all land owned was purchased by the owners, 

 and the remainder was received in about equal amounts through 

 marriage and inheritance. The proportion of all land owned that 

 was received in these three ways are approximately the same for ten- 

 ants and owners. The tendency for inheritance to break down the 

 size of holdings is suggested by the fact that the average inherited 

 farm was 65.5 acres in size, while the average size of the purchased 

 farm was 141.6 acres — more than twice that of the inherited farm. 



In order to determine whether or not there is any relation be- 

 tween the tenure of father and that of the son, data on the tenure 

 status of the fathers of operators were taken. It was found that 

 of the fathers who were farmers, 38.6 per cent of those of croppers, 

 68.2 per cent of the fathers of tenants and 75 per cent of those of 

 owners were owners. From general observation, while interview- 

 ing operators, it is believed that the greater financial encourage- 

 ment and assistance given by fathers who were owners was a more 

 important influence in this regard than was the training and in- 

 herited traits of the operators whose fathers were owners. Never- 

 theless, it will be noted from Table 21 that there is a relation 



27 Only amounts of $200 or more are considered fortuitous assistance to attaining 

 tenancy. 



