ANNUAL REPORT, 1944-45 5 



For the dairy farms picked up in the identification detail, data on livestock 

 numbers have also been secured from AAA milk subsidy records. 



In the third sample under consideration, that used by the New England Crop 

 Reporting Service, livestock numbers have been transcribed and tabulated. 



Incomplete coverage of the major phase of the work precludes testing of the 

 several samples. Comparison between the major sample and census population 

 on a county or regional (three Valley counties) basis indicates an inaccurate 

 selection. The random sample, selected on a square-inch-grid basis, is over- 

 weighted with small herds. 



Loan Performance on Low Income Farms in Massachusetts. (C. R. Creek.) 

 Standard rehabilitation loans which were made by the Farm Security Adminis- 

 tration from 1936 through 1943 on 89 cash-crop farms in the three Connecticut 

 Valley counties of western Massachusetts had been repaid in full by 66 farmers 

 by June 1945. Of the remaining cases, 13 were classified as active borrowers 

 who had received loans within the past two years, 5 were collection cases on old 

 loans, and 5 had defaulted on their loans after making some repayments. Pay- 

 ments on these loans were made in large amounts from the sale of onions, potatoes 

 and tobacco. Three years of good yields and high prices for crops enabled these 

 farmers to pa}' off current and delinquent loans. 



Standard loans which were made on 95 livestock and livestock-crop farms 

 during this period were repaid by 53 borrowers by June 1945. Of the remaining 

 cases, 25 were classed as active borrowers, 11 were collection cases, and 6 had 

 defaulted on their loans after making some repayments. These loans were 

 generally set up on a longer schedule of payments than the crop loans and pay- 

 ments were usually made each month from sales of poultry and dairy products. 

 Payments from sales of crops were made by 74 borrowers to repay loans from 

 1936 to 1945. Sales of livestock and livestock products were the source of re- 

 payments on 21 farms. Auctions of livestock and equipment were necessary to 

 close 14 loans, and income from work in industry was used to complete payments 

 on 10 loans. On 62 percent of the farms, loans were repaid from crops; on 18 

 percent, from livestock enterprises; and on 20 percent, from sales of capital assets 

 and industrial employment. 



One or more standard rehabilitation loans had been made between 1936 and 

 1943 to 184 borrowers and by June 1945 loans were repaid in full on 119 farms 

 or 65 percent; 38 loans or 21 percent were classified as active; and 27 loans or 

 14 percent were collection and defaulted cases. New loans were made in 1945 

 to seven borrowers, but not all of the active borrowers received supplementary 

 loans in 1945. 



Clearing and Improving Land on Massachusetts Farms. (C. R. Creek and 

 J. F. Hauck.) Practically every farm in Massachusetts contains a few acres of 

 once productive land that has reverted to timber, brush, shrubs, or weeds. Also 

 many farms are divided into small fields of one to five acres by stone walls which 

 were built many decades in the past. Other fields contain boulders and stones 

 which prohibit the use of modern labor-saving machinery. 



Within the past five years heavy machinery such as bulldozers, gas shovels, 

 brush-breaker plows, and bog harrows have been used to clear land of trees, 

 stumps, brush, and boulders, remove stone walls, dig drainage ditches, construct 

 erosion controls, and remove old apple and peach trees from orchards. Land has 

 been cleared in present farming units for pasture, poultry range, orchards, cran- 

 berry bogs, vegetable crops, potatoes, and field crops. In a few cases the acreage 

 which has been cleared and improved was greatly in excess of the original cleared 

 acreage, but in most cases from 5 to 20 acres of land have been cleared to increase 

 the size of the original farm. 



