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The following statistics, gleaned from a work issued in 

 1889 by the Department of Agriculture, entitled " Album of 

 Agricultural Statistics of the United States," will no doubt 

 be interesting to the readers of this bulletin, and valuable for 

 future reference. 



The area of Massachusetts is 7,800 square miles. Accord- 

 ing to the State Census for 1885, there are 3,898,4291 acres 

 of land. In the "Album" referred to, we find 34 7 per 

 cent, of this land not in farms : 41.4 per cent, is productive 

 lands; 19.5 per cent., woodland; and 4.4 per cent., unpro- 

 ductive farm area, — or a total of 34.7 per cent, lands not 

 in farms, and 65.3 per cent, in farms. The unproductive 

 lands include old fields, swamps, ledges, and other tech- 

 nically "waste" areas, most of which are susceptible of 

 improvement or reclamation. Relative to woodlands, it 

 should be noted that only forest lands in farm areas have 

 ever been reported by the census. The area " not in farms " 

 has woodlands also. Dividing the farm area, we find 26.4 

 per cent, is tillage lands; 37 per cent., grass lands; 29.9 

 per cent., woodland; 6.7 per cent., unproductive lands. 



tllustrative of the value of farm lands, we find that the 

 average value of such lands per acre is $43.52. We also 

 find that there are 38,406 farms in the State, of which 91.8 

 per cent, are cultivated by the owner, 6 per cent, by tenants 

 paying money rental, and 2.2 per cent, are cultivated by ten- 

 ants on shares. 



In 1888 there were 59,397 acres of corn in the State, or 

 12 acres to each 1,000 acres of total laud surfoce ; and the 

 average yield per acre was 32.1 bushels. In the same year 

 there were 25,000 acres of oats, or 5 acres to each 1,000 

 acres of total land surface ; and the average yield per acre 

 was 30.4 bushels. 



Concerning the value of farm animals, — horses, milch 

 cows, other cattle, sheep and swine, — we find that the 

 averaires jriven are those often annual estimates, and not for 

 a single year, and they represent the values upon the farms 

 or the price paid to farmers in the primar}^ markets. Value 

 of horses per head, $93.06 ; of milch cows, §34.96 ; of cattle, 

 exclusive of milch cows, $34.76; of sheep, $3.29; and of 

 swine, $12.41. The largest factor in diflerence in value in 



