114 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 266 



Table 6. — Distribution of land values in farming and part-time faujiing. 



FARMING 



Value per acre 



Acres 



Number Per cent 



Average 

 Total price 

 value per acre 



PART-TIME FARMING 



Acres Average 



Total price 



Number Per cent value per acre 



Below $25 243 



$25— 49 2.915 



50— 74 757 



75— 99 248 



100— 299 267 



300 or over 24 



Total 4,454 



5.5 $4,400 $1S 

 654 108,100 37 

 17.0 45,500 60 



5.6 20,200 SI 

 6.0 35,900 134 



.5 16,200 675 



100.0 230,300 



52 



land in regular farming. In fact, there were found in part-time fanning 

 considerable areas of low-priced, inferior land which had been abandoned 

 by regular agriculture. This is well demonstrated by the fact that, while 

 only 5.5 per cent of the total area in farming was valued at less than $25 

 per acre, in part-time farming this low-priced land represented 15.3 per 

 cent of the total area. (Chart 5.) As compared with regular farming, 

 therefore, part-time farming tended to develop eitlier on land which was 

 important for residential purposes or on the poorer grades of agri- 

 cultural land. 



Chart 5. Percentage of Land of Different Values Held In Fanning and Part-Time 

 Farming in the Town of Holden. 



FA RM IN G 



PART-TIME FARMING 



Size of Landholdings in Part-Time Farming 



The size of landholdings of part-time farnu-rs in the town of Holden 

 showed a wide variation, beginning with small lots not larger than a 

 fraction of an acre, and ending witii tracts of 100 acres or more. As 

 shown in Table 7, over one-third of the total' number of enterprises in 

 Holden were less than one acre in .size. Nearly another third was repre- 

 sented by landholdings varying in size from one to three acres. In adHi- 

 tion to raising vegetables, the operators on some of these enterprises 



