FARM OWNERSHIP AND TENANCY IN TEXAS. 
31 
AGRICULTURAL HISTORY OF FARM OPERATORS. 
TENURE HISTORY. 
TENURE STAGES OF ALL OPERATORS. 
Table 17 shows the percentage of all operators who passed through 
each of the several tenure stages or were engaged in other occupa- 
tions, and the aggregate time spent in these stages since the operators 
began for themselves. These data show the relative importance of 
the different stages in the tenure history of the operators. 
One-third of all the farm operators, as will be seen from Table 17, 
had been in other occupations than farming; but the per cent of 
aggregate years spent in other occupations was comparatively small, 
being 7.9 per cent of the aggregate time that all operators had been 
working for themselves. 
Those entering other occupations generally fall into two classes: 
(1) Operators who had been fairly successful in other occupations 
and had followed them for a considerable number of years, and (2) 
operators who were not very successful as farmers and who volun- 
tarily entered other occupations after having been farm operators 
or who were compelled to do so because of tenure reversals. Most of 
the men who have tried other occupations fall within the last class, 
and it is the influence of this class that makes the average age of 
entry to other occupations higher than the age of beginning as a 
farm hand and as a share tenant. 
Table 17. — How the 368 operators have been employed since they began to 
work for themselves. 
In other 
occupa- 
Farm 
hands. 
Share 
croppers. 
Share 
tenants. 
Cash 
tenants . 
Owners 
addi- 
tional. 
Owner 
operators. 
Per cent of all operators who 
have been 
Per cent of aggregate years spent 
in each stage 
Average age of operators at time 
of first entering each stage — 
Average years spent in each 
stage.. * 
32.5 
7.9 
26 
51.8 
14.2 
21 
5 
41.0 
10.6 
27 
5 
7.4 
10.6 
2.4 
35 
4 
35.1 
20.3 
32 
11 
The farm-hand stage is used largely as a beginning stage for young 
unmarried men. The average age of entry into this stage was 21 — 
less than the age of entry into any other stage, and 72 per cent of the 
total time spent in this stage was spent while the operators were 
single. However, share croppers, to a greater extent than any other 
tenure group, have been reversed to the hired-man stage, and have, 
consequently , spent more time after marriage in the farm-hand stage 
than have the members of the other tenure groups. 
