In this study, the insolvent cotton farmers from the East San Joaquin Valley were all in their middle years (35 to 64), but 64% were over 45 years of age. They had a larger number of dependents than average for farms in this area, and a higher level of education than the average farm operator in California. Also, on the average, they had spent more years in farming than had farmers in the state as a whole. Most were part-owners or tenants in an area in which 64 per cent of the farm operators owned their farms, but their farms were larger than the average farm in the study area. Once insolvent, very few of the “straight” bankrupts returned to farming as farm operators, and their bankruptcies had a marked impact on the flow of income in communities around which they centered.

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