The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-04-16
A CENSUS OF ABANDONED FARM
LAWNS


Much information about the aban-
doned farms of Vermont and New Hamp-
Shire has been presentedin these columns
from time to time as ithas been gathered
by Commissioners Valentine and Batch
elder respectively. The first complete
statement about this interesting subject,
however, comes from Massachusetts,.
The bureau of statistics of that State has
recently ascertained with all the precis-
ion of an exact census in what parts of
the State and to what extent agricul-
tural land has ceased to be cultivated.
This we believe is the first undertaking
of the kind. The facts thus brought out
are significant, indicating as they do i'm
pOrtant social and industrial changes in
a considerable part of New Englands
narrow territory. These changes, how
ever, are less mOmentOus in respect to
the community as a whole than may have
been inferred from the less complete
findings of the New Hampshire and Yer
mont authorities.
Almost all of the abandoned farms of
Massachusetts, are situated in the fiv,
western counties, which embrace the
rockies and the hilliest parts of the State,
and the hardest TO cultivate, though on
the whole perhaps not the least produc-
cities and large towns. There are in
Massachusetts, altogether 1.4Gl aban-
doned farms, TIP of which have buildings
and CSC none. OF the fatal of 1,46l
the five western cOunties-Worcester
Franklin, Hampshire, Hampden and
BerkShire-cOntaln 1,2l4. For the State
at large the propOi ton of farm land
abandoned, considered either as to acre
age or value, is not very great. As to
acreage, the abandoned farms of the
State amount to only 3.45 per cent of all
the farm land; as to value, such farms
are worth only LIS per cent. of the total
value of all the farms, The aggregate
abandonment therefore can hardly be
thought suggestive of general agricul-
tural decline, Even in the newer and
more fertile districts of the West aban-
doned farms may be pointed out. Mas
| sachusetts at large thus needs no special
cOmmiscration on the ground of the de-
cay of her farming communities, though
the decay of the primitive agricultural
industry, without the ripening of other
industries to take its place, is unques-
tiOnably serious matter for some parts
of the State. Thus, for example, three
towns in Hampshire county, Chester
| field, Huntington and Westhampton, re-
|
acreage as abandoned. There can be
little consolation for the dwindlng pop
ulation of these old hill towns in the low
average of farm abandonment for the
entire State.
Closely connected with the foregoing
statements there comes up of course the
question whether, in consequence of the
| surrender to nature of farms once culti-
waited, the aggregate values of agricul-
| tural products and property and the
acreage of land under cultivation have
diminished. This inquiry is fully an
swered i'll the returns of the last Massa-
chusetts census, and the answer is, ON
the whole, calculated to excite surprise.
Comparing 1885 with 1875, every county
in the State, save Nantucket, shows
considerable increase in the value
of agricultural products. The gains in
the five western counties, where the
lllrgest proportion of abandoning farm
land is found, are particularly striking.
The agricultural products of Berkshire
county increased in the ten year 34.G2
per cent, of Franklin 1850 per cent, of
Hampshire 12.1l per cent, of Hampden
1922 per cent, of Worcester 20.4S per
cent. The statistics of agricultural | ro ,
erty make a similar exhibit. In Worces-
ter county 3S towns abandoned farms,
but in % of them there was in the ten
years ending with 1885 an increase in the
acreage of cultivated land, in 81 of them
an increase in the value of agricultural
products and in 32 of them an increase
in the value of agricultural property.
Berkshire county contains IS towns hav-
ing abandoned farms, and yet half of
them report an increase in cultivated
acreage, IL an increase in the value of
agricultural property and II an increase
in the value of agricultural products.
From the whole series of facts Com
missioner Wadlin draws the gratifying
conclusion that for the western counties
of the State. as well as the eastern, not
withstanding the abandonment of land
in certain towns, there has been no fall
ing off in recent years either in the ag-
gregate value of agricultural property,
which of course forms the farmers fixed
capital, or in the value of products de-
ri yed from agriculture as an industry;
and furthermore it is frequently if not
universally true that although certain
towns show decline in the value of
agricultural products and property, yet
the loss is co-eXiStent with considerable
increase in other town in the same vicin-
ity. Or, to put the case in another
form, although land is abandoned in
e certain localities, land under cultivation
has increased in other localities in the
immediate neighborhood, so that when
the local differences are eliminated and
the counties are considered each as a
whole, a net increase appears in cult
= vated land, in tine value of agricultural
, property, and in the value of the yearly
product derived thereftom. This is an
exact statistical result which could hard
. ly have been anticipated.
The United States census of 1890, the
detailed returns of which for Massachu-
sets have just been published, furnish
, the data for some interesting studies of
the changes in population in the towns
reporting abandoned farms. There are
in all IA such towns among the 3jl
; towns and cities of the State. OF these
= towns 61 showed decline in population
! as compared with 1865, and still fur.
= ther decline in 1890 in comparison with
t. 1880, while % more report loss of in
: habitants in the last-named decade
The drift of population away from the
agricultural communities of west m
Massachusetts, is particularly noticeable
a Here are few typical instances of the
- movement, as appears from the United
I; States censuses of 1880 and 1890 and the
state cpnSus of 1881.