E. Walpo!e — Southern Connecticut River Valley Town With 

 Fairly Strong Agriculture and Competitive Land Use 



Description of the Area. The Town of Walpole is located in the north- 

 west corner of Cheshire County. North of the village of Walpole the Con- 

 necticut River Valley is too narrow in places for even a single row of valley 

 farms. South of the village the valley widens sufficiently to make room for 

 a few large dairy farms. Most of Walpole's farms are in the upland — on 

 its broader, less steep hills and in the small valleys between the hills. The 

 general description of the type of farming and nature of the soil quoted in 

 the description of Lancaster also applies to Walpole. There are important 

 differences, however. Walpole lacks the large tributary valley so that her 

 farms away from the river are generally somewhat rougher, smaller, and more 

 scattered. 



New Hampshire Bulletin 340 shows at least two-thirds of Walpole 

 favorable for dairy farming. The detailed town map shows a strip along the 

 river as No. 1 (except for the north end), a large central area as No. 2, a 

 north central strip as No. 3, and the remainder as No. 4 to No. 7- land which 

 is from marginal and unfavorable for dairy farming to nonagricultural. 



Number and Size of Idle Places. As compared with Lancaster, Walpole 

 has a large number (29) of idle or nearly idle places. However, 22 of the 29 

 were classified as less than commercial size, five as doubtful commercial 

 size, and only two as commercial size. After studying a number of towns one 

 comes to expect more idle places where there are, or have been, more num- 

 erous small hill farms such as there are in Walpole as compared with Lanc- 

 aster. 



Current Use and Ownership of Idle Places. In Walpole residential use 

 of agriculturally idle places is again by far the most frequent, 18 of the 29 

 places being used principally as residences. Decidedly second is summer 

 homes with 5 of the 29 places so used. 



Commercial Size Places. One of the commercial size places is used 

 principally as the. residence of a part-time farming family which once farmed 

 it on a commercial scale. The other commercial size place passed into owner- 

 ship for summer home use when the last farmer was unable to fully re- 

 establish himself after a fire. 



Doubtful Commercial Size Places. Four of the five doubtful commercial 

 size places are used principally as residences and it is one of the principal 

 uses of the fifth. It is perhaps of some significance that four of the five 

 owners (the fifth is a farmer's widow) bought their places with some in- 

 tention to farm and have farmed these places more intensively (three cases) 

 or have some intention of doing so (one case). Apparently they have under- 

 estimated the difficulties or over-estimated the rewards as compared to alter- 

 native uses of their time and funds. 



Less Than Commercial Size Places. Of the 22 less than commercial size 

 places, 13 are used principally as residences, four as summer homes, two as 

 poultry farms, and three had no current use. A few of the residential places 

 have been used by their present owners for small farms with intensive type 

 enterprises such as poultry. More of them were small dairy farms several 

 years ago. These small dairy farms changed to nonfarmer ownership when 

 their operators died or retired. At this stage potential buyers (or sellers 

 in case of heirs) judged them more valuable as residences than as farms. 



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