The past trends in capital and credit requirements of U.S. agriculture are well documented. While farm numbers and farm labor declined by more than fifty percent from 1950 to 1973, total assets for the U.S. farming sector Increased from $132,5 billion to $385.5 billion and debt from $12.4 billion to $73.6 billion [l4, p.l ] During this period of substantial growth in the agricultural capital market, there has also been a significant change in the market share of debt held by various financial intermediaries. In the non-real estate debt market. Production Credit Associations have Increased their share of the total outstanding debt report ed by financial institutionsfrom 13.7 percent in 1950 to 30.1 percent in 1973, Commercial banks* share of this farm debt category has decreased from 72,3 percent to 65,2 percent during the same period. [l4, p, 20] A similar shift has occurred in the real estate market. While the market share for Federal Land Banks Increased from 16.2 percent in 1950 to 26.1 percent in 1973, the share held by conmerclal banks decreased from 16.8 percent to 13.9 percent. [U, p. 15]