ABANDONED FARMS 



Probably all readers of this bulletin are awave of the 

 existence of abandoned farms in New England, and some 

 may be familiar with the recent efforts of New Hampshire 

 and Vermont to secure the reoccupancy of those within 

 their borders. Such farms are also found in Massachusetts, 

 and the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor has col- 

 lected a number of interesting statistics concerning them, 

 which may be found in the twenty-first annual report of the 

 said bureau (1890, pp. 177-258), from which the following 

 extracts are made. 



The returns as to abandoned farms were made directly to the 

 bureau by the assessors of the several towns at the close of the 

 year 1889 and early in the year 1890. 



The following definition of the term "abandoned farm" was 

 placed upon the blank sent out to the assessors : — • 



" By 'Abandoned Farms' in this inquiry are meant those for- 

 merly cultivated but now deserted, upon which cultivation is now 

 abandoned, and the buildings, if any, unoccupied and permitted 

 to fall into decay. In some cases the grass is still cut on these 

 farms, but nothing is done in the way of enrichment of the soil, 

 and the land is jjractically unproductive and left to run wild." 



The returns were made in accordance with this explanation, 

 which describes what is generally understood by the term aban- 

 doned farm, and the following statistical tables, so far as they 

 refer to such farms, are limited by the definition given : — 



