ABSTRACT
THE first important problem faced by the managing owner is the mobilization of manpower for the cultivation of his farm. For the poor owner the most direct solution of this problem, namely, the utilization of his own and his family’s services, raises the question of the labor resources of the average family. In Luts’un the average family (excluding the single adults) had 5.4 members in the spring of 1938 and 4.9 members in the autumn of 1939. Counting only the adults (sixteen to sixty years of age), the average was 1.8 males and 1.8 females per family in 1938 and 1.3 males and 1.8 females in 1939. If each family confined its labor to its own farm and employed no additional help, the average family could manage but 18 kung of land in 1938 and only 13 kung in 1939, assuming the average efficiency for each member. The management of a farm larger than these figures would require the utilization of outside labor. One of the commonest methods of securing help is by exchange, a method by which the small owner gets additional employment for himself while he is able, at the same time, to muster the assistance he needs without cash expenditure.
