The declining farm population. The number of people living on American farms has declined steadily during this century. Here are data on the farm population (millions of persons) from 1935 to 2000:

Year: 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1990 2000 Population: 32.1 30.5 24.4 23.0 19.1 15.6 12.4 9.7 8.9 7.2 3.9 3.0

(a) Make a scatterplot of these data. Draw by eye a regression line for predicting a year’s farm population.

(b) Extend your line to predict the number of people living on farms in 2020.

Is this result reasonable? Why?