6 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 430 



chusetts, and of these 30,868 reported as to the total value of agricultural output. 

 For the purposes of this study these farms were classified into four groups with 

 respect to the value of agricultural output. The classification takes into con- 

 sideration also the number of producers engaged in part-time farming as re- 

 ported by the Census. Because of the variety of conditions both in part-time 

 farming and among different types of commercial farming, a certain amount of 

 overlapping from one group to another is unavoidable. This factor, however, 

 is of only minor significance for the purposes of the present discussion. 



The largest group, 14,079 farms with under $600 of output and an average of 

 $257.61, is represented by part-time and self-sulificient farming. Farming here 

 is only subsidiary to other work or other Income, and therefore does not carry 

 the responsibility of full family support. However, the next largest group of 

 9,745 farming units, with an output between $600 and $2500 and an average of 

 $1309 per farm, presents a real problem. It is evident that these farms, because 

 of either inadequacy of land resources or inefficiency of operation, are not the 

 kind to be depended upon to provide a satisfactory living b>- modern standards. 

 In the ensuing jears the farms in this group will require the full attention of the 

 agricultural agencies working in the field of farm improvement. L'ndoubtedly 

 many of these substandard famil}' farms have such meager resources that the 

 only proper thing to do is to retire them from agricultural operation entirel)-. On 

 the other hand, there will be many cases where, by combination of two or three 

 farming units or by land improvements on the individual farms, it will be possible 

 to develop an efficient economic family unit. 



ADJUSTMENTS IN AGRICULTURAL LAND USE 

 Major Factor — Land Use Readjustment 



The field of adjustments in Massachusetts agriculture which promises the 

 most far-reaching results, but which so far has been tackled only very perfunc- 

 torily, is the improvement of land utilization. The present maladjustments are 

 not the results of the war or the period immediately preceding it. They have 

 been developing over a long period of time and are intimately connected with 

 the history of land use in this State. 



The early settlers hacked their fields out of the wilderness, used their available 

 human and animal labor to remove some of the stones, and piled up stone walls 

 around their farms and fields, thus determining for a long time ahead the shape 

 and size not onh' of their farms but also of individual fields. What was a great 

 constructive effort and the foundation of agricultural development at the time, 

 has become in the course of years a handicap to the adoption of more efficient 

 methods of land utilization in the period of mechanization. The pattern of land 

 utilization is very ill-adapted to the prevailing methods and largely for this 

 reason considerable areas have been withdrawn from cultivation. For the State 

 as a whole, for instance, between 1880 and 1940 the Improved land declined from 

 63.4 percent to 40.7 percent of the total land in farming. While much of this 

 land was undoubtedly of inferior quality and should have been withdrawn under 

 any conditions, a considerable amount was of good qualit\", and an even greater 

 amount could have been rendered suitable for cultivation by appropriate means. 

 The latest developments in technology Indicate that, as far as agricultural land 

 is concerned, machinery will be used not only for the cultivation of the land but 

 also for the remaking of the land to a much greater extent than has been possible 

 heretofore. The present study of land resources In their relation to other adjust- 

 ments is based largely on the above vital considerations. 



