158 



A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



TABLE 5. Changes in acres of crops harvested, 190924 an d in crop land harvested, 

 1924-29, originally forested counties east of Great Plains 



i Gross increase is total of increases in counties having increases, and gross-decrease is total of decreases 

 in counties having decrease during the period. 



TABLE 6. Idle or fallow crop land, and pasture other than plowable pasture or 

 woods pasture, originally forested counties east of the Great Plains, 1929 



Aroostook County in Maine and the northern counties of Vermont 

 are the only ones which did not show the downward trend. (See 

 fig. 1.) Aroostook County has had a considerable increase both in 

 agricultural land and in crop land since 1900, and the northern 

 Vermont counties show little change. 



MIDDLE ATLANTIC STATES 



In the Middle Atlantic States also the opportunities outside of 

 agriculture and the competition from the newer agricultural lands 

 were the important factors in briging about abandonment. Prior to 

 the development of industry and railway transportation, pressure of 

 population had forced people to settle on much poor land in these 

 States. Although such lands may have yielded fair returns when 

 first put into cultivation, they soon deteriorated, and the process of 

 abandonment soon began. For this region as a whole abandonment 

 was exceeded by new land being opened up and the total area of 

 agricultural land increased until after 1880. The total area of 

 agricultural land was very nearly the same in 1910 as in 1880. 

 (See table 2 and fig. 2.) The area used for agricultural production 

 probably increased slightly from 1880 to 1890 or 1900, since the total 

 area in farms was greater in 1900 than in 1910. (See table 1.) 

 Data on the area in woodland in farms are not available for 1890 



