UTILIZATION OF LAND 



13 



Topsfield and Princeton these uses are already responsible for the utilization cf 

 about 50 per cent of the non-resident area. However, there are a number of com- 

 munities in the State with conditions similar to the town of Warwick, where only 

 7 per cent of this land is taken up for recreational uses, and where there is a pos- 

 sibility of further development for recreation and forestry land without drawing 

 upon the area now in farming. 



In a number of these towns with a considerable portion of the land area dropped 

 out of agricultural use, it is becoming an exceedingly difficult problem to maintain 

 the schools, roads and other local institutions out of local taxes. The amount of 

 taxes collected on the land which is idle and without any improvements on it is of 

 necessity limited. Although it has been found in the process of investigation that 

 abandoned land owned by non-residents is generally ta.ved higher than land of 

 equivalent quality still in farms, the absence of improvements on this land leads 

 to a smaller total valuation. 



Where poor quality farm land is being bought with the intention of utilizing it 

 for some other purpose it eventually brings benefit to the agricultural community 

 and the remaining farm population. This condition is well demonstrated by the 

 record of 50 farms in Berkshire County which changed hands between 1925 and 

 1930. As will be seen from Table 7, over one-half of the land sold with these farms 

 went into recreational and residential uses. (Inasmuch as this represents only a 

 specific group of transactions, the percentage for all farms sold in this county 

 will not necessarily be as high.) The erection of new buildings and other improve- 

 ments which accompanied the bringing of land into these new uses resulted in 

 increasing the valuation and the amount of collected taxes. Although the ad- 

 dition of new values through improvements has been effected on all former farms 

 after the change of ownership, those sold for recreational and residential purposes 

 have benefited to the greatest extent. This additional basis for taxation enables 

 many towns to obtain a greater income without imposing any new burdens on the 

 farming population. 



Table 7. — Changes in Value and Land LItilization of Fifty Farms Sold 

 IN Berkshire County in the Period from 1925 to 1930. 



Increase 



Purpose Sold For Farms Sold Acres Selling Present in Value 



Number Percent Number Percent Value Value Percent 



Farming 17 34.0 2,550 41.6 $106,100 $124,600 17.4 



Recreational and residential 



uses 30 60.0 3,225 52.5 123,000 231.400 88.1 



Country estates 3 6.0 360 5.9 20,900 35,000 67.5 



Total 50 100.0 6,135 100.0 $250,000 $391,000 56.4 



Out of a total of 50 Berkshire farms investigated, 39 were sold because of retire- 

 ment, death, or unprofitableness of operation. From this evidence there is no basis 

 for concluding that the sale of farms was due to any considerable extent to com- 

 petition for land between farming and other uses. Most likely much of the land 

 taken up for recreational and other uses would merely have been added to tne 

 abandoned areas already present in difterent communities. 



One adverse influence of the new land developments on the farming population 

 has been brought out by an occasional complaint by some of the farmers that the 



