6 MASS. EXI'ERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 294 



After allowing for this land owned by the residents of neighboring communities, 

 it will still be found that about one-third of the land in the agricultural communi- 

 ties of Massachusetts is owned by non-residents. The significance of it appears 

 in the fact that in 1920 only 12 per cent of all the farms in Massachusetts were 

 operated by tenants and managers. This condition would indicate, therefore, 

 that the major part of the land owned by non-residents is now used for purposes 

 other than farming, ■ — a conclusion which is further substantiated by the fact that 

 about one-half of the land owned by non-residents is not equipped with any build- 

 ings at all. 



The distribution of percentages of assessed land area owned by non-residents 

 in various towns is shown in Table 3. In more than half of the towns below 

 10,000 population over 25 per cent of the area is owned by non-residents and in 

 about 10 per cent of the towns non-residents own over one-half of the area. In a 

 few cases, especially in the towns situated on the coast, non-resident ownership 

 is due to a highly developed recreational utilization of the land, but in the majority 

 of cases it is associated with idle land, mostly of a quality too poor for agricultural 

 purposes. 



Table 3. — Distribution of 71 Towns by Percentage of Total Town Area 

 IN Non-Resident Ownership 



The lowest percentage was found in the town of Bridgewater and the highest in 

 the town of Holliston, the figures being 12.5 per cent and 88.1 per cent respectively. 

 The reason for the small percentage of non-resident land ownership in Bridgewater 

 lies largely in the fact that there is little forest land or land devoted to recreational 

 uses. About one-half of the land area in this town is in farms and the rest is 

 devoted largely to residential purposes. In the town of Holliston the high pro- 

 portion of non-resident ownership is almost entirely due to the development of 

 summer residences and summer hotels, the area of the town being thus largely 

 devoted to recreational uses. 



Relationship Between Non-Resident Land Ownership, Farming, and 

 Various Economic and Physical Factors 



The development of non-resident land ownership in Massachusetts agricultural 

 communities is closely connected with the dropping of land out of agricultural use. 

 The character of this relationship is brought out by consideration and analysis 

 of the economic and physical factors of various towns. The factors to be consid- 

 ered here include land values, amount of improved land in farming, proportion of 

 woodland, average elevation of various towns, and other items. 



