Table 2. Milk Production in 

 New Hampshire, 1900-1945* 



Census Yearf 



Milk Production 

 (gallons) 



Since 1925 the census has in- 

 cluded, as one part of what is here 

 called tillable land, figures on crop- 

 land not harvested nor pastured. 

 These figures have varied too much 

 from census to census to establish a 

 trend, but the 1950 figure was 59,079 

 acres, or 13 percent of total acres of 

 tillable land. This is a somewhat 

 larger percentage than in previous 

 censuses. This land is in immediate, 

 danger of being lost to agriculture; 

 it is here that the shrinkage in till- 

 able land occurs. 



Another sign of continued adjust- 

 ment is that milk production is being 

 maintained by fewer and larger 

 farms. Comparing present herd sizes 

 in several towns with those of ten 

 vears ago, the writer noted a definite 

 tendency for farms with 5 to 10 cows 

 to have become farms with 15 to 30 cows or to have quit dairying. Some 

 small farms have been able to get more land or to raise the. productivity of 

 what they had. In other cases, the operator, if able, has changed to other work. 



This brief excursion into the history of New England farming seemed 

 desirable to point out that in the past much land abandonment has taken 

 place and that, in the long run, this is as it should be, if people are to seek 

 higher standards of living. In this study of idle farm land we have tried 

 to exclude land which cannot be farmed so as to provide the farmer with 

 a living as good as he can obtain on other land or at other occupations. 

 We were interested in idle land which could be profitably farmed with mod- 

 ern methods and without having to be reclaimed from woods. 



*Data from United States Census of 

 Agriculture. 



fThe production year is the year pre- 

 vious. 



Immediate Objectives of The Study 



Noting a situation here and there has led some people to think that there 

 might be considerable amounts of such land in various parts of the state. 

 Some people thought large amounts might be idle due to wealthly persons 

 buying farms for summer homes, to elderly farmers retiring on the farm, 

 and to farm abandonment proceeding too far in some aeas. It was thought 

 that renting of farms or farm land was not highly developed in New Hamp- 

 shire and that renting, if developed, might be a means of making the idle 

 land available for farming. Even though some land did not represent a farm 

 unit, it might be used by farmers in the vicinity, since farm equipment has 

 become more mobile. Indeed, much of the open idle land owned by non- 

 farmers might already be used to the extent of buying standing hay. But 

 land used in this manner is already idle in the sense that hay yields grad- 

 ually deteriorate, cutting is discontinued, and brush comes in. Such, in 

 brief, were the thoughts which led to this study. The general objective of this 

 study was to find out more definitely the extent and nature of New Hamp- 

 shire's idle farm land problem, and, if possible, to make suggestions as to 

 what might be done about it. 



