over the extremely difficult hurdle of obtaining the initial capital needed 

 to even secure adequate credit. 



2. How Individual Owners May Benefit 



• How and to what extent owners of idle farm land may benefit from 

 its use depends on what their particular farm resources are and on their 

 particular interests in owning rural property. Persons owning potential 

 farm units or large pieces of productive land, of course, have opportunity 

 for greater monetary gain than those owning places with only a few acres 

 of farm land. Those owning the larger places especially stand to gain in 

 two ways by having their places farmed: in the first place, the farm may 

 provide current income from production: in the second place, intelligent 

 use can increase a farm's selling value, whereas a New England farm that 

 is idle does not stand still in value but rapidly depreciates. 



These points about current income and future selling value, of course, 

 also apply to the agricultural assets of the smaller places. However, with 

 the smaller places the agricultural assets are more often secondary. Whether 

 the place is large or small, if the agricultural assets are. of secondary value 

 it cannot be expected that the place will yield a profit over its nonjarm 

 expenses. It may be possible, however, for the farm earnings to reduce the 

 cost of maintaining a summer home, for example. Rent from the use of hay 

 land may pay the taxes or the farmer may do some maintenance work on 

 the buildings or grounds in exchange for use of the land. But where the 

 agricultural value of a place is small it may not be worth much rent, 

 at least until it has been improved, so the owner may have to look largely 

 to nonmonetary benefits, including a better view and some fire protection 

 when fields surrounding the house are kept open, better relations with 

 farmer neighbors, and an increased appreciation of the ways of agriculture. 



One reason why nonfarmer-owned farm property goes unused or unim- 

 proved is that some of the owners, especially city people and women heirs 

 of farmers, just do not know what should be done to secure the best income 

 from a farm. These people should seek advice from qualified persons, in- 

 cluding good farmers, their county agricultural agent, and their college of 

 agriculture, or else sell their farms or farm land to someone who does know 

 how to use it. If they do not make intelligent use of New England farm land, 

 its agricultural value will surely depreciate rapidly. 



In some cases older farmers gradually retire on the farm and as they 

 do so their farms deteriorate in appearance and value. Owners of adequate 

 commercial size farms, as they approach this stage, would be better off if 

 they sold or rented their farms to younger men. In the case of some smaller, 

 less productive farms, the semi-retired farmer may have a higher income 

 by remaining on his farm, working as much as he is able, and not fully 

 maintaining his buildings; that is, using up some of his capital. Even in 

 such cases, however, it might be better for the owner to do a fairly inten- 

 sive job on a part of his farm and sell or rent the remainder. For instance, 

 a dairyman who has reached the stage where he is no longer able to fully 

 operate his farm might be better off to keep, say, ten cows, and rent out 

 his hav land rather than keep five cows and only half operate his land with 

 his own inadequate labor. Even though he had to buv hav ( in excess of 

 that which he might receive as rent ) his net income should be higher be- 

 cause his land, buildings, and labor are more effectively used. 



48 



