Report on the Agricultural Experiment Stations, 1953 Page: 135

                                
tRURAL SOCIOLOGY                    135
Modern trend in farm communities
Field interviews made by the Washington station indicate that
rural neighborhoods are losing their previous significance. Farmers
and villagers are now becoming integrated into communities, according
to the Wisconsin station. That station has produced figures
showing that the number of active rural neighborhoods has decreased
about 25 percent in the past 20 years. Three-fourths of those presently
active have been so for 30 years. These have certain characteristics.
For instance, tenant families do not exceed 28 percent; families resident
less than 25 years do not exceed 50 percent; and families of like
nationality do not exceed 64 percent. American rural society began
on the farm, where families were socially and economically tied together
in neighborhood clusters. Village and town centers came later.
This arrangement is in contrast with most European and Asiatic
settlements, where farmers have for centuries lived in towns and
villages and gone out to the surrounding fields.
Labor-deficient areas in cotton production
Cotton harvesting is becoming mechanized in the Texas High
Plains, according to State station research on farm manpower, a key
factor in the national defense program. Some machine harvesting
took place on 91 percent of the sample farms in 1951. The capacity of
available machines was adequate for a completely mechanized harvest
in the area that year. However, most farm operators preferred to
hand-snap the first time over because of losses in cotton quality and
yield that occur in machine harvesting. Tenure arrangements and
small units also retard the use of machinery. Until these difficulties
are removed, total mechanical harvesting of the cotton crop will not
materialize.
Twenty percent of the labor used in cotton operations was local, the
rest was migratory. Only 3 percent of the operators sampled used
Mexican Nationals in 1951. However, Mexico has a substantial farm
labor potential in case of a U. S. manpower crisis. Seventy-six
percent of the labor was recruited by the operator, or sought work
from him; 17 percent was obtained through arrangements made the
previous year; and 7 percent was recruited through the Farm Labor
Office. Thirty-two percent of the labor was lost before the end of the
harvest through dissatisfaction with wage rates, poor fields, and necessity
of insuring schooling for children. Less than 1 percent left because
of poor housing.
For 1952, 50 percent of the operators thought they would make no
adjustments to meet the labor situation; 23 percent planned to buy
strippers; 11 percent intended to depend more on imported labor; 7
percent planned to contract for additional custom stripping; and 9
percent expected to reduce cotton acreage.
Educational, Health, and Counseling Needs
Adult classes for farm instruction
In a survey of veterans who, had taken part in the GI training program
the Washington station learned that many had received their
on-the-farm training on farms requiring supplemental income. The