Economic and Social Conditions of North Carolina Farmers is the title of a recent bulletin based on a survey of 1,000 North Carolina farmers in three typical counties of the state. The survey was conducted jointly by the North Carolina College for Women [Greensboro], the North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering [NCSU, Raleigh], the State University [Chapel Hill] and the State Department of Agriculture, in cooperation with the U.S. Bureau of Agriculture Economics. The bulletin is mainly statistical, containing 184 tables of economic and social data. A copy may be secured from Dr. B.P. Brown College Station, or from the Department of Rural Social Economics, Chapel Hill, N.C.
From time to time, we will present some of the interesting facts brought out by the survey. One of the objects of the survey was to secure accurate data showing the effect of farm ownership and of tenance on education. The information secured has been compiled in a series of tables printed in the bulletin. The following table shows the average school grade reached by the four classes of farmers, for both races. The average for North Carolina would be practically the same as the average for these 1,000 farmers in three typical counties of the State, Edgecombe, Chatham, and Madison.
White operator landlords reached an average grade of 6.4
v White owner operators reached an average grade of 4.33
White tenants reached an average grade of 3.97
White croppers reached an average grade of 3.07
Negro Owner operators reached an average grade of 2.95
Negro opener landlords reached an average grade of 2
Negro tenants reached an average grade of 1.55
Negro croppers reached an average grade of .98
If these 1,000 farmers are typical of the state, then the average farm owner in the state has about a fifth grade education, while the average white tenant has finished less than 3 ½ grades, since the bulk of our tenants are croppers. The average negro owner has about 2 ½ grades of schooling, while the average negro tenant has barely more than finished the first grade, since the great majority of them are croppers. Farm tenancy and illiteracy are twin-born social menaces.
From page 4, the editorial page of the Cherokee Scout, Murphy, N.C., Feb. 8, 1924. A tenant farmer rented the owner’s land and used his own tools. A share cropper provided the labor, used the owner’s tools and paid at the end of the season with a share of the completed crop.
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