POSTWAR READJUSTMENTS IN AGRICULTURE 7 



On the basis of recent studies made by the Massachusetts Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station and the Soil Conservation Service, at least one and one-half 

 million acres of land in the State are suitable for one or another sort of agricul- 

 tural utilization. About one-third of this area is outside of existing farms. Of 

 about one million acres of suitable land on farms, only one-half is used for crops, 

 including hayland. In spite of this, there is some land in farms that should be 

 taken out of cultivation because of inferior quality or general deterioration. On 

 the other hand, new areas of good land, both on existing farms and in outside 

 areas could be brought into cultivation through one or a combination of several 

 reclamation measures. These include clearance of brush and timber, drainage of 

 wet and swampy areas, removal of stones and stone walls, and irrigation of some 

 limited areas. 



The greatest obstacles to the introduction of mechanical equipment in the 

 cultivation of Massachusetts land are the rough terrain, the rocky and stony 

 soils, and the considerable amount of wet land. All such areas were the first to 

 be retired from agriculture. The most important result of these developments is 

 not so much that the total land under cultivation has declined; of much greater 

 significance is the fact that the land which has continued in cultivation is scat- 

 tered in small patches all over the farm. This in turn has imposed a further 

 limitation on the use of mechanical equipment and caused a considerable loss of 

 the operator's time in moving from one small field to another. The same reduc- 

 tion in efficiency of farm operations is caused by the presence of stone walls on a 

 good many farms. 



Within recent years some manufacturers of farm equipment have taken definite 

 steps to bring into the market smaller types of machinery better adapted to the 

 scattered New England fields. This, however, meets the situation only partially 

 and inadequately. The fundamental problem remains one of consolidating the 

 scattered fields, and, where necessary, increasing the total amount of arable land 

 on farms in order to obtain an efificient and economic family unit capable of using 

 modern mechanical methods. With the needed land improvements accomplished 

 in the field of land utilization and with desirable production and marketing meth- 

 ods adopted, Massachusetts producers should be in a better position to reduce 

 the cost of production to a much narrower margin in relation to major producing 

 regions. 



Undeveloped Land Areas of Suitable Quality 



Inasmuch as undeveloped land areas of suitable quality are found both inside 

 and outside of the boundaries of existing farms, they. may become a source of 

 needed adjustments along several important lines. In the first place, they may 

 provide additional land for the enlargement of cultivated areas on farms where 

 there is a need for the additional acres. On some farms where additional land 

 for cultivation does not present a problem, undeveloped land of good quality 

 may be brought into cultivation for the replacement of land tracts of poor quality. 

 In some towns where undeveloped land is found in large tracts, new farm units 

 may be developed to serve as replacements for existing farms which are likely 

 to go out of use because of inferior soil or because of their isolated location in 

 the town. In some towns where the isolation of individual farms presents a 

 problem of providing good roads and other public services, a well-organized plan 

 of relocation may be of real benefit to the entire rural economy ot the area. 



In an effort to determine the possibilities involved in drawing upon undeveloped 

 land areas as a source of major land utilization adjustments in Massachusetts 

 agriculture, thorough consideration has been given to the basic data already 



