The Caledonian-record. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1920-current, 1921-12-08
VERMONT LEADS
IN IMPROVED
FARM LANDS
Based On Her Per Capita
Acreage Leads All New
England

| kOu U>4iiIlSl Ou
Vermont today leads all New
| England in the ~percapita acreage
: of her improved farm lands, anc
thus continues a supremacy main
tanned for seventy years. While
for a prolonged period there was
Il steady and disturbing decrease
in profit-producing farm acreage
an upward trend, now clearly
manifest, discloses a turn of the
tide and seems to indicate the
gathering momentum of the "back
to the farm" movement, with a
higher degree of efficiency and a
broader vision in farming methods
and management. These are de-
d%uctions to be gathered from an
important Government bulletin OF
the 1920 agricultural census which
has Just been issued.
There were 4.S acres OF mn
proved farm land in the United
States for each individual OF the
population on January l, l9Zl'
ACCORDING to the Fourteenth Cen
SUI. and it t%ranspires that that
figure exactly represents the YER
mont per capita acreage TO-DAY.
This is far ahead of the average
for the whole of New ENGLAND,
which is only eight-tenths OF one
acre Vermont lead with AS Is not
approached by any other New
England state, Maine, with 20
being next. New Hampshire comes
in with 1.6. Connecticut is third,
with one half of one per cent; and
Massachusetts and Rhode Island
are tied for fourth place, at two
TENNIS of one acre each.
Improved land, as defined by
the Census Bureau. includes all
land regularly titled or moved.
land in pasture that has been clear
ed OF titled, land lying fallow, land
in gardens. orchards, vineyards
nurseries. and land occupied by
farm buildings.
Although the population of the
United States and the acreage OF
improved land in farms have been
increasing steadily since 1850,
there was a period from 1880 to
1910 in which the lands thus
elassed in Vermont decreased with
a considerable degree of regularity
The peak was reached in 1880,
when Green Mountain farms re-
a grand total of 3,286,4Sl
of improved land, which was
that time a per ACREAGE of al
most ten. During the next ten
years the figures dropped to 2,
5 5,943 acres, a falling off in inn
proved lands Of G30,514 acres,
leaving the per capita acreage at
A corresponding decrease was
noted between 1890 and 1900, the
census of the latter year crediting
the state with 529,319 less acres
of improved farm land than its
predecessor. The per capita rate
took a similar slump, down to 6 to
But the decrease was not even
then halted. for from 1900 to 1910
the per capita rate fell still lower
4.6, and the acreage was re-
duced 492, $50, down to less than
that of 1880, or l, 633.9oo.
These almost uniform reductions
from an analytical stand
indicate the effects of that
movement away from the farm
and the country and to the city
On the part of farm and country
Dred youths over the period of a
generation which had such a dis
lstrous effect on the prosperity of
many agricultural communities.
Happily. however, it is in evil
lence that this tendency has now
Deen checked, for during the de-
,ade just passed there was an in
,rease of more than $4,000 acres
n improved farm lands through
,ut Vermont. Correspondingly the
Ger capita rate advanced slightly.
The present figures are given as
,G91,595 acres. as against 1888.
D65 in 1910. This increase is all
he more noteworthy when il Isl
remembered that the population
If the state, as the census enumer-
made it. was 3.428 less in
1920 than in 1910. 1t seems a rea-
enable deduction that the move
nent is 10Y back TO rather than J
way from the farm, and in favor
If greater farmir~ efficiency.
This upward tendency does not
in the case of any other
New England state. Today New
has less than one-half
he improved farm acreage credit
I'd TO Vermont. While this Is
doubtless due in considerable mar.
the large forest preserves of the
State and the space oc-
by the rugged slopes of the
Presidential Range, yet the fact
'emainS while Green Mountain
arms have been increasing their
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