Table 8. Principal Use and Type of Owner of Agriculturally Idle Places, 



Town of Gilmanton, 1948 



Number of Places 



Commercial size places 6 



Residences 3 



Unsettled estate 1 



Retired businessman-farmer 1 



Part-time residence of businessman and sometime farmer 1 



No current use 3 



Bank 1 



Lumberman 1 



Retired businessman-farmer 1 



Doubtful commercial size places 11 



Residences 5 



Nonfarm workers 2 



Businessmen (local) 2 



Retired farmer 1 



Summer homes 4 



Business and professional people 2 



Nonfarm worker 1 



Occupation unknown 1 



Summer boarding house 1 



No current use 1 



Heirs of estate 1 



Less than commercial size 20 



Residences 8 



Nonfarm workers 4 



Business and professional people 2 



Inactive farmer 1 



Occupation unknown 1 



Summer homes 7 



Business and professional people 3 



Occupation unknown 4 



Summer guest house 1 



No current use • 4 



Nonfarm workers 2 



Occupation unknown 2 



acres of tillable land and about 11 acres of pasture. The places of less than 

 commercial size averaged about 23 acres of tillable land only. The smaller 

 open pasture acreages on the smaller places are in agreement with the prob- 

 able earlier abandonment of the smaller places as farms. 



Gilmanton evidently has many more idle places than it has active dairy 

 farms. In four north and eastern spots of No. 4 (marginal) dairy oppor- 

 tunity land, the places shown as active dairy farms on the 1937 map were 

 nearly all idle by 1948. The situation is not much better in the rest of the 

 town. 



Some of the selectmen expressed the view that state aid for roads had 

 come too late for agriculture in the northern part of Gilmanton. The town 

 has a large road mileage relative to its assessed valuation. This evidently had 

 a doubly discouraging effect on agriculture: (1) The difficulty of getting 

 out products, especially milk, and the inconveniences of living on bad roads; 

 and (2) the high property tax on farms for such road building and mainten- 

 ance as was accomplished. 



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