118 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 266 



their places of employment was 3.8 miles in Lowell area and 5.0 miles in 

 Taunton area. The distances traveled are shown in Chart 1 (page 109). 



Table 2 (page 110) shows the methods of transportation used. The 

 smaller percentage of operators using tlie automobile in Lowell area was 

 largely due to exceptionally good electric car and bus facilities. Opera- 

 tors using auto'mobiles either owned their own machines or rode in those 

 of neighbors, sharing the expense. The most common charge for this 

 transportation was $1.50 per week without much variation for distance 

 traveled. Where more than one member of a family worked in about the 

 same place, the automobile was used in preference to other available 

 means of transportation. 



Operators are classified by nationalities on the basis of the place of 

 their birth. (Table 3, page 110). The proportion of American-born was 

 about the same in the Lowell and Taunton areas, about one-third of all 

 operators. The predominant foreign element in Lowell was Polish-Lithu- 

 anian; in Taunton, Portuguese. 



Period of Settlement on the Present Landholdings 



For the majority of operators in both areas, the first venture into 

 part-time farming began with their settlement on the present holdings. 

 Only 15 per cent of the operators in either area had practiced part-time 

 farming on holdings other than those they occupied at the time of the 

 investigation. 



Table 12. — Period of settleiment of part-time farmers ox their present 



LANDHOLDINGS. 



Lowell area Taunton area 



Year 



Number Per cent Number Per cent 



Up to 1910 6 5.2 8 9.5 



1910—1914 16 13.9 9 10.7 



1915—1919 22 19.1 17 20.3 



1920—1924 48 H.8 30 35.7 



1925—1927 23 W.O 20 23.8 



Total 115 100.0 84 100.0 



Table 12 shows that only 5.2 per cent of tlie operators in Lowell area 

 and 9.5 per cent in Taunton area had settled on the present holdings 

 prior to 1910. On the other hand, 61.8 per cent in the first, and 59.5 

 per cent in the second area began to operate their present enterprises after 

 1920, or in the eight-year period prior to the present investigation. When 

 due allowance is made for the ages of operators, and tlie fact tiiat some 

 of the earlier settlers died or moved out, these figures are still large 

 enough to warrant the conclusion that there has been an increase in the 

 rate of settlement within the last decade or so. This is also substantiated 

 by the fact that 32.2 per cent of the operators in Lowell area and 23.8 

 per cent in Taunton area, almost all of whom settled within recent years, 

 acquired merely land on which they erected buildings and developed 

 new enterprises. 



The rate of growth of population within the last thirty years in small 

 towns and semi-rural districts of the State also indicates that there has 

 l)een an exceptionally large influx of people into the country, beginning 



