AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN xix 



Farm tend. — Farm land is divided into (1) improved land, (2) wood- 

 land, and (3) all other unimproved land. The same classification was 

 followed in 1880. At former censuses, except that of 1880, farm land 

 was divided into improved land and unimproved land, woodland being 

 included with unimproved land. Improved land includes all land regularly 

 tilled or mowed, land pastured and cropped in rotation, land lying fallow, 

 land in gardens, orchards, vineyards, and nurseries, and land occupied by 

 farm buildings. Woodland includes all land covered with natural or 

 planted forest trees, which produce, or later may produce, firewood or 

 other forest products. All other unimproved land includes brush land, 

 rough or stony land, swamp land, and any other land which is not im- 

 proved or in forest. It should be noted however, in this connection that 

 the census classification of farm land as "improved land," "woodland," 

 and "other unimproved land" is one not always easy for the farmers or 

 enumerators to make, owing to the fact that the farmers sometimes use 

 these terms with different meanings from those assigned to them by the 

 Bureau of the Census. Thus, some consider poor "woodland" as "other 

 unimproved land," while others call brush land "woodland." As a result 

 the census classification of farm land as "improved," etc., is not as 

 accurate as its report of total farm acreage and value. 



The two maps reproduced herewith show, for the different counties, 

 the proportion of the total land area which is in farms and the average 

 value of farm land per acre. Of the total land area of the state over 

 nineteen-twentieths is in farms, and as shown by the first map only two 

 counties have less than nine-tenths of their land surface in farms, while in 

 a majority of the counties the proportion is nineteen-twentieths or higher. 



The average value per acre of farm land for the whole state is $82.58. 

 In twenty-two counties, comprising a group in the east central part of the 

 state, a belt running north and south near the western border, and four 

 counties in the southeastern part of the state, the value ranges between 

 $100 and $125 per acre. The value is between $75 and $100 per acre in 

 a majority of the remaining counties, including practically all of those 

 in the central and western parts of the state with the exception of those 

 just mentioned in which the value is between $100 and $125, and a num- 

 ber of counties in the southeastern part of the state. In most of the 

 counties in the two northern tiers, about half of the counties in the two 

 southern tiers, and most of the counties in the northeastern corner of the 

 state the value is between $50 and $75 per acre. In only three counties 

 does the average value of farm land fall below $50 per acre. 



Progress during the decade 1900 to 1910. — Between 1900 and 1910 there 

 was a decrease in population of 7,082, or 0.3 per cent, and a decrease in 

 the number of farms of 11,578, or 5.1 per cent, together with a decrease of 

 643,649 acres, or 1.9 per cent, in farm land. As a result of the greater 

 relative decrease in the number of farms than in the total acreage of 

 farm land, the average size of the farms increased over 5 acres. 



Farm property, which includes land, buildings, implements and machin- 

 ery, and live stock (domestic animals, poultry, and bees), has increased 

 in value during the decade nearly $2,000,000,000, or more than 100 per 



