Agrarian values traditionally have been linked with farm families. Using data from a survey of Wisconsin farm spouses, this article explores the relationship between the identification of farm husbands and farm wives with agrarian values and related sex role orientations and position in the social structure of agriculture. As in previous studies, a commercial/refugist dimension of variation in agrarian identities was found. Depending on the structure of farm household organization, there also was substantial support for a much wider range of agrarian and non-agrarian identities than previously supposed. This was particularly so for farm wives. The change from lifestyles dependent on farming activities to those not dependent on agriculture has been central to the growing diversity in farm spouse roles and self-perceptions. Future studies need to consider three distinctive sets of value-orientations associated with traditional business, and property-holding lifestyles. (author)
James F. Evans Collection, This is a comparative analysis of the adjustment of a Danish and a Polish ethnic group to the American culture in a dairy farming area in central Wisconsin. The adjustment is evaluated in terms of recommended farm practices. These practices are grouped under three major categories: (1) livestock practices, (2) cropping practices, and (3) mechanization. For every trait measured the Danish farm group exceeds the Polish group in the proportion who have adopted the selected recommended practices. The performance suggests that the Danish and Polish ethnic groups are different universes from the standpoint of behavior and reaction to recommended dairy farming practices. The Danish and the Polish groups constitute distinct culture complexes, or subcultures, within the North central dairy region. the evidence of the study indicated that the cultural adjustments of the Danish group facilitate the introduction of new ides, whereas the adjustments of the Polish group tend to perpetuate status quo. (author)