The Rural Manpower Picture; Statistical Summary by Regions and States

Excerpts: The purpose of this compilation of facts and estimates is to present an objective basis upon which to build policies and programs to meet the current rural manpower situation. From all the contradictory evidence handed to the public over the past few months it has been impossible to get any clear idea of what constitutes the present agricultural manpower force and what is happening and will happen to the working force under the continued and accelerated impact of military and industrial drains upon it. In order to throw some light on the situation and to translate all available evidence into something concrete and specific, the Program and Reports Division, with the aid of other divisions in Washington, set about to construct what turned out to be the present report on manpower. The general over-all approach which was used was to divide the farms in the Nation into two groups. From the one type - the “market producing" farms - virtually all of the marketed produce comes. These are the farms to which it will be necessary to move farm workers as the manpower situation grows tighter. From other type of farms - the "low-income" group - approximately 5% of the marketed agricultural production will come this year. These are the farms from which agricultural workers can be moved to supply the needs on the "market-producing" farms.