The Agricultural Ladder: Its Adequacy as a Model for Farm Tenure Research

Abstract

term could be expected to suggest itself almost spontaneously to American farm people, accust6med as they are to the various forms of the simile of climbing the ladder to success. Perhaps for this very reason, that it could be lifted virtually complete out of rural American folklore, the agricultural ladder.concept was early adopted as a simple theoretical model, guiding the investigatorial processes of scores of research workers studying farm tenure. It was admirably suited for this purpose. It was simple, easily comprehended by researcher and reader alike, the latter adapting it excellently to Extension Service use. It was a model of economic dynamics; its basic categories were those which theoretically systematized investigation of a process rather than a description of simultaneous co-existences. This was obviously indispensable in studying farm tenure. Thirdly, it fit the facts, i. e., it provided logical (theoretical) categories into which data could be easily ordered and arranged. And lastly, it provided not only a means of analyzing an important economic process but also, implicitly, a yardstick of value by which the working of the process could be judged. For it was accepted almost without question that unencumbered farm ownership, being the tenure objective of the farmer, represents the end-in-view of farm tenure research.