76 



RURAL NEW YORK 



best farms could be maintained in active tillage in the 

 open competition. In each decade in the last third 

 of tlie nineteenth century, the cultivated area in New- 

 York was less than in the preceding one. Stock, espe- 



! ! , '-ix.,-,is-^ : ■.■:■■■. .<:■■:■■:■■. ■■X-.'- 



I I OECRE 





I.CM T>**lt ft »€• «<" 



) 76 PCa CCH) 



J a TO l5 »t" 't"t_ 



I &0 Pta •CNIJJtO « 



Fig. IG. Changes in rural population from 1900 to 1910. 



cially sheep and hogs and beef cattle, was reduced in 

 numbers togetlier witli the reduction in acreage of 

 tilled crops. Xot until the present time has the 

 shrinkage in acreage of crops and of certain types of 

 live-stock reached its base level from which it may 

 now be -expected to ascend. 



The largest proportion of the total land area of the 



