32 BULLETIN 1068, U. 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. 
