20 BULLETIN 1382, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
more working capital, more land, and the use of more labor. Fur- 
thermore, his wants for the present must be balanced against his 
wants of the future. Sometimes the farmer's most intensive wants 
are along the line of greater production — larger business — at the 
expense of family living. Thus, the desirability of the further study 
of the relation of accumulated net worth to the standard of living. 
The average annual rate of accumulation of wealth deserves con- 
sideration as an index of the ability to pay, since accumulation, the 
resultant of producing and saving, means a source of increased pur- 
chasing power ultimately. Regardless of the fact that for a given 
year living expenses must be deducted before a net accumulation 
can be determined, this accumulation means finally an available 
fund, the creation of which adds greatly to future income and thus 
reflects itself in an increased purchasing power. Though a positive 
correlation between the average annual rate of accumulation and 
the standard of living may be expected, it must be noted that ac- 
cumulation may be at the expense of the standard of living or that 
it may mean in many instances merely an excess of income over the 
prevailing standard of living. 
The percentages that gratuitous wealth and increased land .values 
are of net worth are of significance mainly as they make available 
larger sources of producing power, increased purchasing power, or 
added funds for accumulation or for family living purposes. The 
latter of these two factors, the percentage that increased land value 
is of net worth, is of significance only with owners, since tenants 
and croppers in the main have no land holdings. It is probable 
that the influence of both these factors is accounted for fully in net 
worth or in the average annual rate of accumulation. 
The number of years since the farmer began his earning life can 
not be regarded as being equally significant with net worth of the 
ability to pay. The influences of gratuitous wealth on the ability 
to produce wealth and to save wealth or use it effectively in the 
production of additional wealth are not accounted for in the years 
the farmer has been earning and saving, as they are accounted for 
in the total net worth. Doubtless the influence of the number of 
years since the farmer began his earning life is almost negligible as 
an index of the ability to pay. 
The averages of each of selected criteria of the ability to pay 
are given by tenure groups along with the averages of factors per- 
taining to the farm business in Table 7. 
These averages differ widely for owners, tenants, and croppers. 
This is true especially with the net worth of the farmer, since 
owners have about 5 times as much accumulated wealth as tenants 
and 12 times as much accumulated wealth as croppers on an aver- 
age. But there is less variation than would be expected in the per- 
centages of net worth obtained gratuitously ; that is, by inheritance, 
gift, or marriage. The percentage of net worth due to net increase 
in land values shows a wide variation for the three tenure groups. 
Croppers received less than 1 per cent and tenants less than 2 per 
cent of their net worth from increased land values in comparison 
with over 30 per cent received by owners from the same source. 
This is to be expected since neither tenants nor croppers, except in 
a few instances, have attained ownership of land. The rate at 
which the farmers of the study accumulated wealth varies without 
