LAND USES 21 



When tax rates are considered by towns the extent of variation becomes more 

 pronounced. They range from $12.90 in the town of Boxborough in Middlesex 

 County to $53 in the town of Warren in Worcester County. With such variations 

 in assessments and tax rates, a more adequate measure of the weight of taxation 

 on agriculture in individual communities will be obtained by taking the amounts 

 paid either per acre of farm land or on the entire farm, as reported in the Agri- 

 cultural Census. 



Taxes on land and buildings per acre of farm land are indicated in Chart VI. 

 The variation is from $1.02 per acre in Franklin County to $5.64 in Norfolk 

 County. In general, individual counties exhibit the same relationships that have 

 been found in the case of land values. 



As shown in Chart VII, the same thing is true of taxes per farm. A notable 

 exception is Barnstable County, where the tax per acre is close to the highest, 

 but because of the small average size of farms the tax per farm is nearer to the 

 lowest payment. 



Both investment in farm real estate, as represented by land and buildings, and 

 taxes paid represent fixed charges in the cost of farm operations and if too high 

 have the effect of discouraging agricultural land utilization when all the charges 

 are to be covered from farming operations. In attempting to make recommen- 

 dations for agricultural land utilization in individual areas, therefore, the level 

 of land values, the size of fixed investment, and taxation should be given primary 

 consideration. 



Residential Land Uses 



With the increase of population in Massachusetts the amount of land used for 

 residential purposes has been gaining constantly in importance. At the present 

 time the total area of land used for residential, industrial, and commercial pur- 

 poses in densely settled areas comprises about 6 percent of the entire area of the 

 State. The proportion naturally varies from one county to another. The rural 

 counties in the western part of the State have the lowest percentage of densely 

 settled area, with 1.3 percent in Franklin and 2.6 percent in Berkshire County. 

 The eastern counties have the highest percentages, Middlesex, Norfolk, and Essex 

 counties having 13.6, 12.2 and 10.8 percent respectively. The only exception 

 to this high percentage in the eastern section is Barnstable County, where the 

 area so occupied amounts to only 2.1 percent of the county. Bristol and Plymouth 

 counties each have 6.5 percent of land in settled areas; and Worcester County, 

 in the central part of the State, has 4.5 percent, somewhat below the State average. 



The amount of land in densely settled areas is not, however, under present 

 conditions the only important indicator of the extent to which land is being used 

 for residential purposes. In the last two or three decades, with the advent of 

 the automobile, residential uses of land have extended ii.to rural areas, with 

 dwellings scattered far and wide. This is true especially in the eastern part of 

 the State but also in the vicinity of urban centers in other sections. If the use 

 of land for residential purposes in these widely scattered rural areas is taken into 

 consideration, the total area of the State devoted to residential uses will be con- 

 siderably higher than is indicated by the densely settled areas alone. A certain 

 amount of land formerly in farming, especially in the eastern section of the State, 

 has become a part of these expanding residential sites. 



