16 
BULLETIN 1285, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
MARITAL STATUS AND DEPENDENTS 
All except one of the farm employees under 21 years of age were 
single; of those older, just over half were married (Table 5). 
Scattering cases of persons widowed, separated from their families, 
or divorced were met. Those reporting dependents had an average 
of 3; those of the American born averaged 2.6; of foreign born 
3.8; of negroes 2.8. 
TRAINING AND EDUCATION 
Three-fifths of the farm employees interviewed said they were 
farm bred ; a slightly larger proportion of foreign born than native 
born so reported. 
Farm workers were asked whether or not they could speak, read, 
and write in English, and, if foreign born, in their mother tongue. 
Only 4.8 per cent of the American born were unable to read and 
write English, as compared with 55.9 per cent of the foreign born 
who could not read or write the language, including 7 per cent 
who could not speak it, English was the mother tongue of a few 
of the foreign born; of the others reporting, 37.6 per cent neither 
read nor wrote their mother tongue. 
Table 5. — Marital status and dependents of farm employees by marital status 
Marital status 
Class of employees 
Single 
Married 
Widowed 
Separated 
from 
family 
Divorced 
All 
em- 
ployees 
American born: 
238 
94 
23 
66 

133 
1 
85 

18 

10 

12 

1 

2 


238 
259 
Foreign born: 
24 
162 
421 
219 
28 
13 
2 
683 
Number reporting dependents: 
127 
63 
5 
3 
3 



136 
Foreign born 
67 
All employees 
190 
8 
3 

203 
Number of dependents reported: 
335 
245 
10 
8 
8 

354 
Foreign born 
| 254 
All employees . . . 
580 
18 
8 
| 608 
Average number of dependents per case 
reporting them: 
American born 
2.6 
3.9 
2.0 
2.7 
2.7 



2.6 
Foreign born.. 
3.8 
1 
3.1 
2. 2 1 2. 7 
ol 
The actual length and kind of schooling received by 678 workers 
are shown in Figure 5. The cases included those still attending 
school. Over half the native born had had five or more grades of 
grammar-school work and one in seven had attended school beyond 
the grammar grades. One-third of the foreign born had attended 
