-40 



BULLETIN 1068, IT. S. DEPAKTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



owner's efforts and ability. If such a separation were possible, a 

 figure on accumulation from all human efforts, mental and physical, 

 would show much greater differences for the operators than are 

 shown by the comparisons made in the above paragraph. 



Table 22. — Average present net \cortli per operator and its sources, by tenure 



classes. 



Present tenure status. 



Share croppers 



Share tenants 



Owners additional. 

 Owner operators. . . 



All operators 



Number 



of 

 operators. 



65 

 192 

 26 

 83 



366 



Average 



present 



net worth 



per 

 operator. 



Average 

 amount 

 of wealth 

 accumu- 

 lated 

 from 

 earnings. 1 



3,979 

 16, 166 

 32.901 



$721 

 3,047 

 8,761 

 15,254 



Wealth received 



from increases in 



land values. 2 



Number 

 of opera- 

 tors 

 receiving. 



10,851 I 5,822- 



! 



148 



Average 

 amount 

 received. 



$732 

 3,014 



5,981 

 15,807 



10, 632 



Wealth received 



from fortuitous 



sources.' 



Number 

 of opera- 

 tors 

 receiving. 



Average 

 amount 

 received. 



$444 



840 



2,645 



2,882 



173 ! 



1,577 



1 This figure does not include wealth received from increases in land values and fortuitous wealth, but 

 does include any wealth made by the use of capital from these sources. Accumulations from earning i 

 represent approximately the wealth the operator has earned from his farming efforts (labor and manage- 

 ment) and any wealth made from the use of capital from whatever source received. 



2 Increases in land values, asusedin this bulletin, means net increases from this source, all value of improve- 

 -ments put on the land by the owner being deducted. 



* Wealth received through inheritance, gift, and marriage. 



Every owner interviewed had made more money from changes in 

 land values than he had lost. Forty-eight per cent of the total pres- 

 ent net worth of owner operators and 37 per cent of the present net 

 worth of owners additional was secured from increases in land 

 values. Only 34 of the 192 share tenants and 5 of the 65 share 

 croppers received wealth from increases in land values, and the 

 average amounts thus received were very small in comparison with 

 the amounts received by owners. 



The wealth received from fortuitous sources was relatively small 

 .as compared with the wealth received from the other two sources. 

 However, it should be noted that owners received larger amounts of 

 wealth from this source than did tenants. Fifty of the 67 owners 

 who received fortuitous wealth got $500 or more at the time of be- 

 coming owners or before. It is very probable that most of these 

 operators received their fortuitous wealth at a time in their financial 

 history when it was relatively of great importance to them as a 

 ■" boost." 



VARIATION IN ACCUMULATIVE ABILITY OF OPERATORS AND ITS INFLUENCE ON 



TENURE. 



The extent to which men differ in their ability to accumulate wealth 

 irom their earnings is brought out by Table 23 and Figure 5. It will 



