1982 CENSUS OF AGRICULTURE 



PRELIMINARY REPORT 



. . . »^ . r%. .. .^...n-^ AC82-A-25-000(P) 



MASSACHUSETTS issued December 1983 



I! The preliminary reports are being published on a flow 

 basis for all counties in the United States with 10 farms 

 or more, and for each State and the United States. The 

 preliminary information on major data items presented is 

 standard for each State and county, except in Table 4, 

 Crops Harvested, and the crop portion of table 5 where 

 the items shown vary by State according to their relative 

 importance. Data for 1 982 are subject to revision. Final 

 results will be published in Volume 1, Geographic Area 

 Series, and will be available as a printed report and on 

 microfiche. In addition to volume 1, individual final 

 county results for each State will be available on 

 microfiche. 



Inventories of livestock, poultry, and other specified 

 items are as of December 31 of the census year. 

 Production and sales data for crops and livestock are 

 for the calendar year, except for a few items (such as 

 citrus) for which the production year overlaps the 

 calendar year. 



Data for farms reporting acreages and inventories for 

 1982 and 1978 are directly comparable. Dollar values 

 iave not been adjusted for changes in price levels 

 jetween census years. 



State totals shown in this report for 1978 have been 

 Adjusted to be comparable with 1982 data. The 1978 

 data for the State, as published in the 1978 Census of 

 Agriculture, were a combination of a mail list 

 enumeration and a personal canvass of a sample of 

 area segments, which provided estimates for farms not 

 on the mail list. For 1982, the area sample survey was 

 not conducted; thus, the data represent only farms on 

 the mail list. The adjustment to the 1978 data was 

 made by subtracting the area sample results from the 

 1978 totals. County data for 1978 shown in the 1982 

 reports did not require adjustment as they were 

 collected from the mail list, comparable to 1982. 



Table 1. Farms, Land in Farms, and Land Use: 



The appendix in this report shows the effect of the 

 area sample on selected 1978 data. The volume 1 

 appendix will provide a more detailed description of how 

 the census was taken, along with pertinent definitions 

 and explanations of the effects of eliminating the area 

 sample in 1982. 



Definition of farm— The data shown represent totals 

 for places or establishments which qualify as farms for 

 census purposes. A farm, as defined for the 1982 and 

 1978 censuses, is any place from which $1,000 or more 

 of agricultural products were sold, or normally would 

 have been sold, during the census year. 



Reliabiiity— Data in this report are based on a census 

 of all identified farm and ranch operators. Because data 

 for selected items are collected from a sample of 

 operators, the results are subject to sampling and 

 nonsampling errors. The volume 1 appendix will contain 

 a detailed discussion and measures of the reliability of 

 the data. 



Aclcnowiedgments— Special tribute is paid to the 

 millions of farm and ranch operators and other 

 agriculture-associated people who furnished the 

 individual reports from which these statistical summaries 

 were compiled. Also acknowledged with gratitude are 

 the contributions of the U.S. Department of Agriculture 

 and other public and private agencies who gave their 

 support and willingly assisted individuals requesting fielp 

 in completing their census reports. 



Symbois— The following symbols are used throughout 

 the tables: - Represents zero. (D) Withheld to avoid 

 disclosing data for individual farms. (X) Not applicable. 

 (Z) Less than half the unit shown. (NA) Not available. 



1982 and 1978 



All farms 



Land in fanns according to use: 



Total cropland 



acres.. 



Harvested aopland (anns.. 



acres-. 

 Cropland used ortly for pasture or grazing... farms.. 



acres.. 



Other cropland farms.. 



acres.. 



Woodland, including woodland pastured farms.. 



acres.. 

 Pasturelarxj and rangelar>d other ttian 



cropland and woodland pastured farms.. 



acres.. 

 Land m house lots, ponds, roads, wastelarvt, 



etc. fanro.. 



acres. 



Irrigated land farms. 



acres. 



All 



Farms number. 



Land in farms acres. 



Average sae of farm acres. 



Value of land and tiuMings': 



Average per farm dollars. 



Average per acre dollars. 



Farms t>y size: 



1 to 9 acres 



10 to 49 acres 



50 to 179 acres 



180 to 499 acres 



500 to 999 acres 



1.000 to 1,999 acres. 

 2,000 aaes or more . 



'Data are based on a aaniple of farms 



U.S. Department of Commerce 



BUREAU OF THE CENSUS 



For sale by Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, 

 Washington, D C.2O402 



75 



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