farms, use of cropland, and value of farm products sold. Commercial 

 dairy farming in the Northeast accounts for 49 percent of all commer- 

 cial farms, 60 percent of the cropland on commercial farms, and 45 

 percent of the value of farm products sold hy commercial farms in the 

 Northeast. 



Agricultural enterprises represented in the Northeast rank as 

 follows in terms of percentage of commercial farms : ^ 



Type of Commercial Farm Percent 



Dairy farms 49 



Poultry farms 10 



Field crop and cash grain farms 9 



Other livestock farms 9 



General farms * 8 



Unclassified farms 8 



Fruit and nut farms 4 



Vegetable farms 3 



100.0 



There are areas within the Northeast that contain high concentra- 

 tion of nondairy farms. Notable examples are the Aroostook County, 

 Maine potato area, the Maine and Delmarva broiler area, the Erie- 

 Ontario fruit area, the cranberry area of Southeastern Massachusetts, 

 and the shade tobacco area of the lower Connecticut Valley. Except for 

 these farming areas, dairy farming is the only enterprise which is 

 generally distributed throughout the whole Northeast, and it accounts 

 for the largest proportion of total farm resource use in the region. 



Characteristics of Commercial Dairy Farms 



Most milk produced in the Northeast comes from specialized 

 commercial dairy farms. They account for 96 percent of the total value 

 of dairy products sold in the Northeast and 40 percent of other live- 

 stock products sold.^ The sale of calves, cull cows, and other joint pro- 

 ducts of milk production constitute a large proportion of the sales of 

 other livestock and livestock products. Commercial dairy farms account 

 for only 8 percent of all crops sold and only 3 percent of all poultry 

 products sold in the Northeast. 



The average size of commercial dairy farms in terms of crop acres 

 varies from a low of 85 acres in Rhode Island to a high of 170 acres in 

 Delaware. The average crop acres per commercial dairy farm for the 

 Northeast is 123. The average number of cows per commercial dairy 

 farm varies from 28 cows in Pennsylvania to 49 cows in New Jersey with 

 an average for the Northeast of 34 cows.^ 



2 Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Census, U.S. Census of 

 Agriculture, 1964. 



3 U.S. Department of Commerce. Bureau of Census, op. cit. 



