42 



BULLETIN 1068, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Table 23.- 



-O'perators classified by tenure and by average amount accumulated 

 from earnings annually. 



Share croppers. 



Operators whose net 

 annual accumula- 

 tion has been — 



Less than $200. 



$200 to $403 



$-400 to $6 30 



$600 to $8 30 



$800 to $1,000... 

 $1,000 or more.. 



Number 

 of oper- 

 ators. 



Per cent 

 of accu- 

 mulation 



of all 

 croppers. 



49.2 

 34.8 



Share tenants. 



Number 

 of oper- 

 ators. 



108 



45 



27 



4 



3 



4 



Per cent 

 of accu- 

 mu'ation 

 of all 

 share 

 tenants. 



19.0 

 27.4 

 28.8 

 6.0 

 5.7 

 13.2 



Owners. 



Number 

 of oper- 

 ators. 



Per cent 

 of accu- 

 mulation 



of all 

 owners. 



- 0.5 

 15.3 

 24.5 

 16.8 

 12.6 

 31.3 



All operators. 



Number 

 of oper- 

 ators. 



185 

 80 

 56 

 19 

 11 

 14 



Per cent 

 of accu- 

 mulation 

 of all 

 oper- 

 ators. 



10.0 

 21.3 

 25.3 

 12.1 

 9.1 

 22.2 



It will be noted, furthermore, that 136 of the operators fall within 

 the groups of farmers who saved $200 and less than $600. These 

 operators, who are 37.1 per cent of all operators, and who save 46.6 

 per cent of the aggregate annual accumulation of all operators, are, 

 in the main, what might be called consistent accumulators of wealth. 

 They are not outstanding accumulators, on the other hand, nor are 

 they failures. 



From Figure 5 it is evident that there is a very great range between 

 the two extremes, that of the few high accumulators, and that of the 

 large number of low accumulators. This point is illustrated con- 

 cretely by the fact that the best 14 accumulators, whose average an- 

 nual accumulation from earnings was $1,000 or more, saved annually 

 $23,940, as compared with an annual accumulation of $2.4,105 by 238 

 who were the poorest accumulators. In other words, 14, or 3.8 per 

 cent of all operators, accumulated annually about as much as 238, or 

 64.8 per cent of the 367 operators. The former saved 22.2 per cent of 

 the aggregate annual accumulation of all operators; the latter, 22.4 

 per cent. 



These facts concerning the extent to which men differ in ability to 

 accumulate wealth from their earnings are fundamental in the 

 tenure problem. The most important thing brought out by them is 

 the dual function of the different stages of tenancy. Not only do 

 these different stages function as stepping-stones to the rising oper- 

 ator, but they function also as selective agencies, often reversing the 

 operator of inferior ability into the lower stages, or else keeping him 

 there, where he is subject to the supervision of an operator of proved 

 efficiency and capacity. 



This dual functioning of the different stages of tenancy is strik- 

 ingly shown in Figure 5. The best accumulators of the two tenant 

 classes are the men who have worked for themselves the shortest time ; 

 while the poorest accumulators are those who have worked for them- 



