12 



MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 430 



SIZE AND DISTRIBUTION OF LAND OWNERSHIP 



In order to ascertain the character and distribution of undeveloped land in 

 the town of Southwick, the ownership of land by individual holdings was analyzed 

 from the assessors' records. For this purpose all holdings of three acres or more 

 were tabulated in two groups, those with buildings and those without. The 

 latter group apparently represents the land tracts that either are not used at all 

 or are used only incidentally in connection with adjoining farm areas. In other 

 words, these are the areas where most of the undeveloped land outside of the 

 existing farms is concentrated and which, depending on their quality, comprise a 

 pool on which to draw for desirable adjustments in the land utilization pattern. 



From Table 2 it will be seen that there are in the town 192 tracts of land of 

 three acres or over without buildings, compared with 300 having buildings; the 

 total acreage for these two groups is 4,525 and 12,615 respectively. The tracts 

 without buildings are smaller on the average than those with buildings. There 

 were only 25 tracts of land of 50 acres or more without buildings available in the 

 town. The average assessed valuation of land without buildings is $20.53 per 

 acre, compared with $30.98 for land with buildings. From all these figures it 

 appears that there is a considerable amount of undeveloped land and that it is 

 assessed for taxation purposes at a valuation rate somewhat lower than land in 

 use, but sufficiently high to raise the question of the necessity of getting proper 

 returns, where conditions are favorable. 



Table 2. — Southwick: Land Ownership and Assessment of 

 Tracts of Three Acres or More. 



From assessors' books. 



