CLEARING FARM LAND 29 



been developed from abandoned dairy farms by clearing bushes and brush for 

 growing potatoes. On the latter, improvement cjsts £-nd land prices were low. 

 Likewise, vegetable farms have been developed from raw land, but the soil types 

 were favorable and savings from control of disease alone the first few years were 

 calculated to pay for a good share of the improvement costs. 



Land improvement has its greatest possibilities on land already in fanms. 

 Chief among the reasons for this is that when costs of land improvement are 

 added to land costs, building costs, machinery', and livestock", the total will 

 exceed considerably the aniount for which a comparable farm can be purchased 

 on the open market. 



This study has concentrated upon cases in which a few acres per farm have 

 been improved. No complete records have been obtained on whole farm de- 

 velopments, because the instances are few and specialized, and because in the 

 future as in the past few years, the prospects are for most of the work to be done 

 on land already in farms. The costs of whole farm development are too likely 

 to be prohibitive. Undeveloped lands outside of farms may be improved and 

 added to existing farms to better advantage than in making a whole new unit. 

 Such addition not onh- will provide opportunity for enlargii^g non-economic 

 units, but will require less expenditure for necessary buildings. 



Future Work on Clearing and Improvement 



The need for land improvement work is primarily on farms with limited crop 

 and pasture acreage. The presence ot boulders and stone walls as impediments 

 to use of mechanical equipment, plus the small size of many of the farms, points 

 to the desirability ot reclamation. Land improvement which includes increasing 

 the size of the farm and making present acreages suitable for use of power machin- 

 ery is one of the main requirements to enable Massachusetts farmers to compete 

 in agricultural production. 



A high proportion of the persons on farms of less than $1000 total value of 

 product are in the group that work more than 100 days off the farm. Many of 

 the small or low-income farms would be suitable for improvement work to some 

 extent. It the combination of non-farm employment and farming produces a 

 satisfactory income, such arrangement probably offers more economic security 

 than would increasing the farming activity through land improvement to replace 

 the non-farm job. The economic desirability of land improvement on commer- 

 cial farms that provide the whole family income is a different proposition. It is 

 on these farms that land reclamation under proper conditions will be of greatest 

 economic importance in agricultural production. 



No estimate can be made of the acreage that would be suitable and econom- 

 ically feasible for development. Decisions in this respect will have to be made on 

 an individual farm basis, with the operator estimating costs and comparing these 

 costs with probable returns. Nor is there any reliable method of forecasting the 

 probable demand for land improvement work. Land reclamation can be ex- 

 pected to continue during the next decade much as it has from 1940 to 1945. 

 When the wartime level of farm incomes drops to "normal" levels, fewer land 

 owners are going to be interested in high-cost land improvement. The more 

 progressive land owners who desire to increase operating efficiency will continue 

 to undertake improvement work that has any prospect of paying out. Road 

 construction machinery is being adapted to land improvement work, and new 

 types of equipment are being developed to increase the efficiency of the work. 

 With the formation of Soil Conservation Districts, it is likely that more indi- 

 viduals will be interested in farm land improvement, particularly if costs can be 

 reduced below present contract prices per hour and per acre. 



