For many of us, Spring signifies a time of renewal. For farmers, this is especially true as they prepare their land and plant the seeds that will generate what they hope will be a bountiful crop. The history of farming in Massachusetts is long, complex and fascinating, encompassing many shifts and adaptations. Farming still has an important role in the state and local products continue to gain in popularity as consumers, striving to be more “green,” become more aware of the potential benefits of buying locally.

Farming in Massachusetts

Penney’s Farm, Route 1, Saugus, Mass.
Saugus Public Library

Farming in Massachusetts predates the first European settlers by at least several centuries. Native Americans were cultivating crops, particularly corn from heirloom seed, with great success using simple tools and natural fertilizers to farm the best land. Across the state they produced varieties of corn and beans, as well as squashes, pumpkins, artichokes, and tobacco, often in sufficient quantities to allow them to sell the excess to the European settlers. Fortunately for the early Pilgrim settlers, the Native Americans, most notably Squanto, shared their knowledge and their surplus corn seed. For the Pilgrims were largely inexperienced at farming and wholly unprepared to fend for themselves.

Farm workers at the Ward Estate, Shrewsbury, Mass., c. 1890
Harlow Family, Shrewsbury, Mass.

Soil conditions varied among and within the different colonies. These variations, as well as market demands, determined which crops were planted where. From the late 17th until the late 18th centuries, moreover, the raising of livestock was at least as important as the cultivation of crops.

During the first half of the 19th century, four factors greatly influenced the development of New England agriculture:

• expansion of transportation
• improved education and information
• invention of better, more efficient tools and machines
• growth of industry and accompanying population expansion

Hallett Farm, Saugus, Mass.
Saugus Public Library

Some developments were positive. For example, expanded transportation networks opened up new markets for New England crops, but at the same time, generated competition with farmers from Western provinces.

During this time, farms were still family-run and farmers were imbued with the highest virtue and “everyone understood that local family farming was the essential and ever present support of life and of the economy, and that a majority of the citizens were involved in it.”

North Saugus Farm, Saugus, Mass.
Saugus Public Library

During the latter part of the 19th century, the population in Massachusetts, and New England continued to grow, thus increasing the market for food products. Facing increasing competition from Western farms in the wheat, beef, and pork markets, local farmers focused on production of fruits, vegetables and, increasingly, dairy products that were in high demand. Important crops included potatoes, onions, with strawberries and cranberries becoming increasingly popular and hay to feed the cows, replaced wheat. During this time, agriculture became more organized nationally and within Massachusetts where the state board of agriculture was created in 1852 and played a major role in the creation of a national agricultural administration.

Lyman School Farm, Westborough, Mass.
Westborough Public Library

During the first part of the 20th century, many farms were still family-run and self-sufficient, meaning that their products were diverse and well-integrated. However, the number of farms in New England began to decrease. There was a resurgence in farming during World War I and World War II, due to the demands of feeding servicemen and women. At the same time, the war created a huge shortage of farm labor, requiring ever greater levels of productivity.

Nationally, during the latter half of the century, farm technology improved, enhancing efficiency and yields, but driving down prices. Farming became more specialized, technological, industrialized and consolidated as smaller, less efficient farms went under. Other farmers supplement their incomes by taking other jobs and farming only part-time.

In Massachusetts, dairy had become the most important agricultural product. Vegetables, fruits and poultry were also still important commodities throughout New England.

Agricultural High Schools

Essex Agricultural and Technical High School student at work in the field
Essex Agricultural and Technical High School Library

Though farming began to decline during the 20th century, in 1911, a report by the Board of Education of Massachusetts on agricultural education concluded, in part, that “the experience of those who are successfully engaged in farming here, and the economic status and prospects of farming in this Commonwealth, show conclusively that exceptional success awaits the work of the exceptional man or woman in this field of economic activity; and that farming is bound to afford a profitable and satisfactory living for the average boy or girl who enters this field with a thrifty, alert and progressive spirit, and with a proper preliminary education.”

Students study in the library at the Essex Agricultural High School, Danvers, Mass., 1937
Essex Agricultural and Technical High School Library

The report went on to recognize that farming was a “calling” that required education in agricultural sciences, and that “in order to secure a widespread productive and profitable agriculture, it is necessary that vocational schools supported and controlled by the public should train the youth in the best methods of farming; and that farming in Massachusetts is a calling of sufficient importance to justify both local and State support of those forms of education that will effectively prepare boys, and, to some extent at least, girls, for it.”

Massachusetts has four agricultural high schools serving students interested in pursuing agricultural careers. These are:

• Bristol County Agricultural High School, Dighton
• Essex Agricultural and Technical High School, Danvers
• Smith Vocational and Technical High School, Northampton
• Norfolk County Agricultural High School, Norfolk

Ralph Gaskill, County Agent, E.C.A.S., Shearing Sheep
Essex Agricultural and Technical High School Library

The Smith Vocational and Technical High School was founded upon a bequest from prominent resident, Oliver Smith and opened in 1908–the first agricultural high school in the state. In November 1912, the Massachusetts Legislature passed an act to provide for the establishment of an independent agricultural school to be located in Bristol County. The Bristol County Agricultural High School was approved during the next election and was established in 1913. The legislature passed a similar act in April of 1915 to establish a second school in Norfolk County. This school also won approval by the voters and was established in 1916. These agricultural high schools today teach not only farming, but environmental science, landscaping, aboriculture, and floriculture and provide vocational and technical training.

Daniels Farm, Blackstone, Mass.
Blackstone Historical Commission with the cooperation of the Daniels Farmstead Foundation, Blackstone, Massachusetts

Farming today

Farming in Massachusetts, as in the United States as a whole, has declined significantly during the twentieth century. As of 2007, there were 2,204,792 farms in U.S. This number represents a decline since World War II in the total number of farmsbut an increase of 4% since 2002. In Massachusetts, farms have increased by 5% during this time. However, rather than diminishing, farming is once again growing in the state. As of 2008, there were 7,700 farms in Massachusetts, covering over one-half million acres of land, with an average size of sixty-six acres per farm. Approximately 95% of these are considered to be “small farms” according to the USDA (sales below $250,000 annually) and more than 80% of Massachusetts farms are still family-owned.

Sunbeam Farm, Swampscott, Mass.
Swampscott Public Library

For many of us, our only connection to local farms is our patronage of roadside produce stands that begin to appear each Spring. Roadside stands are ubiquitous in many areas through the harvest season. Many farms offer visitors the opportunity to “pick you own” produce, as well as an opportunity to tour the farm and meet its inhabitants, human and animal. In fact, these types of hands-on farms are now known as “Agri-tourism farms.” The economic potential of “agritourism” should not be discounted as MASSGrown reports that it accounted for $5.3 million in income in 2008, an eight-fold increase since 2002.

Did you know?

Spring Plow Match at the Spencer Peirce Little Farm in Newbury
Marilyn Graves

According to MASSGrown:

• The number of organic farms in Massachusetts increased from 129 in 2002 to 295 in 2007, and organic sales from $7.8 million in 2002 to $17.5 million in 2007.
• Two of every five primary farm operators are women.
• According to sales, the following commodities are the highest grossing: fruits, nuts, berries ; nursery, greenhouse, floriculture, sod ; vegetables, melons, potatoes, sweet potatoes ; and milk and dairy products.
• In terms of acreage, the following products are most significant:
  forage land (93,811 acres) ; vegetables harvested (15,764 acres) ; berries (14,804 acres) ; corn for silage (13,895 acres) ; and sweet corn (5248 acres).
• Worcester County has the largest number of farms at 1,547 and Nantucket, the fewest at just 14.
• The largest farms are in Berkshire and Plymouth counties, which have 7 and 8 farms, respectively encompassing 1,000 or more acres. However, the value of products sold from Nantucket farms averaged over 206,000 per farm, far greater than the average for any other county.