BUYING FARMS WITH LAXB-BAN/K LOANS. 5 
EXTENT TO WHICH LANDLESS FARMERS HAVE BEEN AIDED BY 
THE FEDERAL LAND BANKS. 
It will be clear also that by no means all of the loans made for 
bivying farm land represent the borrowings of landless persons. 
A considerable number of such borrowings may be made by persons 
who already own farm land. Such persons may be operating the 
farm owned, or they may be renting it to others while they are them- 
selves operating land as tenants. 
Table I. — Federal land bank borrowers buying land who answered the ques- 
tionnaire, classified from the standpoint of ownership of other land and of 
tenure status as farm operators. 
Class. 
Total in each 
group. 
Owning other 
farmland. 
Not owning other 
farm land. 
Number. 
Per cent 
of group. 
*?^j&w* 
Number. 
Per cent 
of group. 
752 
1,290 
12 
36.6 
62.8 
.6 
285 
1,077 
6 
37.9 
83.5 
50.0 
467 
213 
6 
62.1 
Not tenants 
16.5 
Not indicated whether tenants or not tenants . . . 
50.0 
Total 
2,054 
1,368 
66.6 
686 
33.4 
Table I presents a classification of 2,054 borrowers purchasing land 
for whom the facts regarding tenure and ownership status were as- 
certainable from the returned schedules. It will be noted that almost 
exactly two-thirds of these borrowers owned land other than that 
which they were buying by the aid of the Federal farm-loan system, 
and only one-third belonged to the landless class. When one bears in 
mind that probably not more than 15 per cent of the loans made by 
the Federal land banks have been for the purpose of buying farm 
land; that only one-third of these borrowers were landless, assum- 
ing the above answers to be representative ; and, finally, that the total 
loans of the Federal land banks probably represent only about 8 
per cent of the entire farm-mortgage indebtedness of the United 
States, it will be clear that the direct aid afforded by the system to the 
landless farmer in the acquisition of land has been relatively small. 
It should be noted, however, that it is a much larger proportion of 
the total new business. Moreover, not all landless farmers are per- 
sons who require unusually favorable credit facilities to aid them in 
buying farm land, for some landless farmers have wealth which may 
be used in buying land, and some landless persons who desire to buy 
farms are not farmers at all. 
It is probable that the relative use made by landless farmers will 
increase as the possibilities of the Federal farm-loan system for 
financing the purchase of farms becomes better known among this 
class. The small proportion of the loans made to total mortgage in- 
