to even maintain land in agriculture in the long run. Part of this light land 

 use probably is a carry-over of old methods of farming. But there are often 

 obstacles in the way of progressive farmers who want to use rented land more 

 intensively. The heart of the problem is in land improvement without which 

 most New England land cannot profitably be farmed. For several reasons 

 associated with the nonfarmer ownership of farm land, land improvements, 

 especially on pieces of less than farm unit size, are made by the renter if 

 they are made at all. Since the renter's investment is seldom adequately pro- 

 tected even by long term leases, renters tend to go light on such improve- 

 ments and perhaps use less rented land than they otherwise could. There does 

 not seem to be any easy solution to this problem. 



Any method of increasing owners' and operators' awareness of the. de- 

 sirability of more intensive use of worthwhile land should help. Likewise 



MANCHESTER 



OEERFICLO 



2Z MILES A 



y^MORTHWOOO 

 ■V JS MILES 





LOHOONOERRV 

 10 MIL 



I 



-I 



I 



METHUEH, MASS. 

 IS MILES 



{RENTING FARMERS 



A RENTED PLACES 

 £ OPERATOR OWNEC 



EPARATE 

 FROM 

 IE FARM 



Map 8. Pattern of renting in the town of Derry. Dairy opportunity areas are numbered 



from 1, the best, to 7, the poorest. 



41 



