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Abstract
Excerpt from the report: The population living on farms in rural areas of the United States averaged 10,875,000 persons in the year centered on April 1967 (table 1). Since April 1966 the number of farm residents has decreased by 720,000 or 6.2 percent. This decline represents a continuation of the long-term downward trend. The Annual Farm Population Survey of the Economic Research Service shows a decline in the number of farm residents in all major geographic regions and divisions of the Nation, with the heaviest losses in the South and West. The greatest absolute and relative decline came in the East South Central Division, where farm population dropped by 9 percent from the prior year. During the period reported, Federal minimum wage legislation for hired workers went into effect for the first time on farms using substantial amounts of hired work. This legislation may account in part for the high rate of loss for the South as a whole and the East South Central Division in particular.