Table 33.—PER CENT DISTRIBUTION OF THE NUMBER, ACREAGE, AND VALUE OF FARMS, BY SEX OF FARMER, BY DIVISIONS AND STATES: 1920.

TABLE 34.-AVERAGE ACREAGE PER FARM, AND AVERAGE VALUE OF LAND AND BUILDINGS PER FARM, BY SEX OF FARMER, BY DIVISIONS AND STATES: 1920.

FARM, AND FARM EXPERIENCE.

INTRODUCTION.

This chapter presents statistics relating to the number of farm operators in 1920, classified according to age, occupancy (number of years on farm), and farm experience. The data relating to age and occupancy are further classified by color and tenure, and the tenure status of the farmer forms an important part of the classification according to farm experience. Comparative figures for 1890, 1900, and 1910 are given in the section on age of farmers; and comparative figures for 1910 are given in the section. relating to farmers classified according to number of years on farm. The information on farm experience was obtained at the census of 1920 for the first time; hence no comparable data are available.

The classification according to tenure and color forms only a subordinate feature of the present report, though the tenure classification is essential to an effective presentation of the data on age, occupancy,

and farm experience. For more detailed information on the subjects of color and tenure, the reader is referred to Chapter III, entitled "Farm Tenure"; Chapter IV, entitled "Farm Statistics by Color and Tenure of Farmer"; and Chapter V, entitled "Farm Statistics by Race, Nativity, and Sex of Farmer."

The term "farmers," as used in this chapter-and, in fact, throughout the reports of the census of agriculture-refers to farm operators, and not to the total farming population of the country, nor to the total number of workers engaged in agriculture. The number of farmers or farm operators given in the various tables for any age group is equal to the number of farms operated by farmers of the designated age, counting one farmer to each farm. Thus the total number of farmers of all ages in 1920 is shown as 6,448,343, which is identical with the number of farms reported for the same date.

FARM OPERATORS CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO AGE.

Farmers by age and color: 1920 and 1910.-The average age of farmers was higher in 1920 than in 1910, a larger proportion of all farmers falling into each of the four age groups comprising farmers 35 years old. and over, and a smaller proportion in each of the two age groups under 35 years, in 1920 than in 1910.1 This change was most marked among the colored farmers. The figures for farm operators classified by age and color are summarized in Table 1.

In addition to the usual factors concerned in changes in the age groups-shifts from farm hand or other oc

1 The average age of all farm operators in the United States in 1920, as computed from the age distribution, was 45.1 years, as compared with 44.5 years in 1910.

cupation to farm operator, changes from farm operator to other pursuits, and losses by death-there was in 1920 an exceptional condition as the result of the World War. Between 1917 and 1920 many young men, farm operators and farm laborers, were drawn from the farms to serve in the military forces or the war industries; furthermore, many older men who had reached the age when they would normally cease active farming continued to operate their farms for a few years longer in order to increase the nation's effective man power. The higher average age of farmers in 1920 would indicate that to a great extent these conditions were still in effect on January 1, 1920.

TABLE 1.-FARM OPERATORS IN THE UNITED STATES, CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO AGE AND COLOR, WITH PER CENT DISTRIBUTION BY AGE: 1920 AND 1910. [Figures for divisions and states in Tables 7 and 8.]