"Agri-businessmen."

American farmers continued to dwindle in number during the decade. In 1950 the farm population of 23 million stood at slightly more than 15 percent of the total population. Ten years later only 15.6 million farmers remained, constituting 8.7 percent of the total population. The American farmers of the 1950s did not necessarily resemble the gentleman farmers of Thomas Jefferson's day: they had become specialized and mechanized "agri-businessmen."

Leaps in Production.

Despite the decline in the number of farmers, gross income from farming rose steadily from $32.3 billion in 1950 to $38.1 billion a decade later. Still, the cost of living increased faster than farm income. Between 1950 and 1960 total farm output rose 23 percent. Farm output per man-hour soared, increasing 157 percent during the decade. The staggering leaps in productivity, coming at a time when European markets still needed U.S. food imports, were made possible by two primary factors, increased...