4 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 385 



the ascendancy, reaching a ratio of about 4 to 1 on C slopes and 6 to 1 

 on D slopes. Pasture competes efifectively with woodland, the percentage 

 devoted to pasture being greater on all slopes except B, where the figures 

 are close. 



Moderate slopes predominate on the land surveyed, as is indicated by 

 the large acreages in A, B, and C slopes, B being the largest. The weight- 

 ed average for all slopes, taking the mid-point of each slope range except 

 D, and 30 for the D class, is 7.9 percent. However, it should be noted 

 that these statements and the figure apply only to the farm land surveyed. 

 More than half the land of Worcester County is not in farms, and much 

 of this land has D slopes. 



Table 1. Distribution of Land-use Classes in Each Slope Class. 

 (Acres and percentage given.) 



Slope Class Cropland Idle Pasture Woodland Farm- Total 



and Range liand yards and 



in Percent Urban Areas 



A (0-3) Acres 1255.3 311.5 1186.3 769.2 18.5 3540.8 



Percent 35.5 8.8 33.5 21.7 0.5 100.0 



B (3-8) Acres 1363.3 160.6 1562.8 1612.9 32.0 4731.6 



Percent 28.8 S.h 33.0 34.1 0.7 100.0 



BB (8-15) Acres 884.5 107.0 1373.7 1116.6 22.7 3504.5 



Percent 25.2 3.1 39.2 31.9 0.6 100.0 



C (15-25) Acres 133.3 17.8 550.3 300.3 1.1 1002.8 



Percent 13.3 1.8 54.9 29.9 0.1 100.0 



D (25-f ) Acres 37.4 8.0 226.0 159.9 0.1 431.4 



Perceyit 8.7 1.8 52.4 37.1 (1) 100.0 



Total area Acres 3673.8 604.9 4899.1 3958.9 74.4 13211.1 



Percent 27.8 4.6 37.1 30.0 0.5 100.0 



(1) Less tlian 0.1 percent. 



Table 1 also shows the broad aspects of land use. Disregarding slopes, 

 the distribution agrees fairly closely with that reported in the census of 

 1935. The cropland, according to the census, was 27.3 percent, which 

 compares with 27.8 percent of this survey. There is more discrepancy in 

 the figures from the two sources for pasture and woodland, which is due 

 in part to the difficulty in separating pasture and woodland classes. The 

 census reports a third separation, woodland pasture, and gives 43.3 per- 

 cent for woodland pasture and "other" pasture, against 37.1 percent from 

 the survey; it gives 23.3 percent woodland "not pasture", against 30.0 

 percent woodland found in the survey; and "other" land, 6.1 percent, which 

 compares with 4.6 percent idle land and 0.5 percent farmyards and urban 

 areas. 



All the percentages in the preceding paragraph are based on the total 

 farm land surveyed or, in case of the census, the total farm land of the 

 county. Since the survey was made by the sampling process, no figures 

 are reported for percentage of farm land in the county. The census gives 

 47.1 as the percentage of the total land area of the county in farms in 1935. 



