4 



AGEICULTURAL CONDITIONS IN SOUTHERN NEW YORK. 



have been abandoned for farming purposes. No crops are grown; 

 little or no stock is kept; weeds and waste have full possession. 

 Nevertheless, some one owns the land and buildings, pays the taxes, 

 and asks a price for transfer, although he is usually willing to sell. 

 Then, if these farms are described as agriculturally abandoned or as 

 nonproductive agricultural land, the situation will be better under- 

 stood. 



LOCATION OF THE UNPRODUCTIVE LANDS. 



Broadly speaking, the areas commonly referred to as al^andoned 

 land lie on the tops of the hills in the rather wide belt extending from 

 Chautauqua County in the southwest through parts of the counties 

 of Cattaraugus, Allegany, and Steuben, through the southern part of 

 Erie,Wyoming, Livingston, and Yates counties, and through Schuyler, 



_.^- »»■>'- 



Fig. 2.— View showing the general topography of the land on the hilltops of southern New York. 



Chemung, Tompkins, Tioga, Cortland, Broome, Chenango, Otsego, 

 and southern Madison to Schoharie and Albany counties. The parts 

 of this area which are in the condition described constitute but a small 

 proportion of its total acreage. Many of the best farms of the State 

 are located in these counties. Although their local topography varies 

 somewhat, in general it is the same. Feeble glaciation has left high, 

 rather steep hills, on the tops of which there are often considerable 

 areas of fairly level to rolling lands. The water flow of many years 

 has cut frequent and more or less deep valleys, usually running north 

 and south. Thus it will be seen that the whole area is very nmch 

 broken in its general outline. 



The land on the top of the hills (lig. 2) was cleared of timber from 

 sixty to one hundred years ago, depending somewhat on the locality. 



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