Much of New England is a country of ancient, worn-down mountains, a land of extremely complex rock structure. It also has been modified by the invasions and retreats of the continental ice sheets of the Wisconsin Age.

The modified land area has been divided (in order of age) into four physiographic type areas the residuals of the ancient mountains, the dissected uplands, the interior lowlands, and the coastal lowlands.

The rainfall is generally enough for almost any adapted farm crop. It is about 50 inches in some parts of Connecticut and less than 32 inches in the extreme north. Severe, widespread droughts are uncommon, and extremely dry years are few.

The prevailing temperatures average about 67 F. in summer and 20 to 30 in winter. The growing season varies from 100 to 125 days in the northern parts to nearly 200 days in the southern section. The variations in the length of the growing season, which are due to topography and exposure, determine to a marked degree the crops that are grown.

The soils vary greatly because of the many different kinds of parent materials in the region. Most of the soils are classified as Podzols or Brown-Podzolics. They are highly acid as a result of years of leaching under forest vegetation. They are quite infertile.

The acidity has favored accumulations of organic matter on the surface of uncultivated soils. It is also responsible for the slow decomposition of organic matter when the land is tilled, especially if the soils have not been limed. The soils are generally shallow in the steeply sloping regions, and the land is in forests.

The local differences in soils, due to factors such as drainage and type of parent material, determine the management and production patterns. Differences in soil texture and the presence or absence of limestone in the parent materials determine the suitability for cash and forage crops.

Loss of soil from erosion is not a major problem in New England because 70 percent of the area is forested; some 85 percent of the agricultural land is frozen or covered with snow several months of the year; and precipitation usually is gentle.

Agriculture in New England has undergone many changes. Wheat, wool, and beef were produced extensively until about 1830. The production of those commodities shifted westward in the latter part of the 19th century as new agricultural lands were opened up. At the same time the New England States expanded their production of more intensively grown crops, such as potatoes, cranberries, blueberries, tobacco, and apples. This shift has continued to the present. The poultry business also has expanded in parts of the region.

The maximum extension of New England agriculture occurred about 1880, when about 207 thousand farms occupied 22 million acres, 5 million of which were in crops. By 1950, the number of farms had dropped to 103 thousand and the acres in farms to 12.5 million acres, of which only 1.8 million acres were in crops.

Dairying has remained important in New England agriculture. Pasture and hay have helped maintain soil productivity in many sections.

About 70 percent of New England is in forest. Trees are the natural vegetation, and abandoned farmland quickly becomes reforested. Spruce and balsam fir are important commercial types in the north. White pine dominates the central areas. Northern hardwoods are important in the southern portion. There are great woodlands in northern Maine, smaller forested areas in the mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont, and small, scattered tracts elsewhere.

Agriculturally, important differences exist between the Northern States (Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont) and those in the south (Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island). About 35 percent of the land area of southern New England was in farms in 1949. Farming is much more intensive in the southern part.

New England is classified generally as a dairying area, but it has several sub-classifications specialized dairy; dairy, poultry, and mixed farming; dairy and general farming; specialized crops; and nonagricultural land.

Most of the nonagricultural land is in forests. Some tracts, particularly in northern New England, have never been in farmland, and much of the land is owned by large concerns.

Better silvicultural practices will increase the yield from the timbered areas and provide maximum cover for the soils. A good portion of the Wood, land areas of parts of New England is not well suited to crops because of poor drainage, shallow soils, and presence of stones and boulders.

Of the many local areas of intense land use in New England, the largest is in Aroostook County, Maine, where potato production is the major farm enterprise. Good management practices have resulted in average yields of nearly 500 bushels an acre more than double the national average.

Another area of specialization is the tobacco area of Hartford County, Conn.

Lack of plant nutrients is seldom a problem in the intensively cropped areas. Although the soils are naturally infertile, fertilization at rates of 2 thousand to 3 thousand pounds an acre are common, especially in Aroostook County. Sometimes those rates may be excessive and wasteful, but growers regard them as a form of insurance on crops of high value.

Because of the intensive cultivation in those areas, soil erosion becomes a problem. Little organic matter can be returned to the soils. More serious, however, is the lack of adequate ground cover earl), in the summer. In some of the old maps of soil erosion, Aroostook County was listed as the only problem area in New England. The problem might be more intense there than elsewhere in New England, but other areas with a maximum of cultivated crops and few cover crops have suffered damage from erosion.

One of the two dairy and poultry farming regions of New England is in southern New England and includes most of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island and part of New Hampshire. The other (DP-2) is in central Maine.

The 1950 Census figures for the dairy, poultry, and mixed farming area of central Maine show that hay is the most extensive crop grown. The Poultry industry expanded rapidly from 1940 to 1950, and in 1957 accounted for a major share of the farmers' income. Poultry competes with potatoes as the leading source of in-coin, for Maine farmers. The acreage in feed grains has not expanded. The poultry area in central Maine has been one of the few feed-deficit areas in this country. It could produce most of its own feed if some of the area devoted to hay or wildgrass were diverted to feed crops and properly managed.

The poultry business of southern New England is more intensive than in central Maine. Southern New England produces relatively little feed. Feed is purchased from the Midwest and fed to the animals.

The dairy and general farming area (DG-5) is mainly in the southern parts of Maine and New Hampshire. Land use in the northern New England dairy and general farming area is much less intensive than in the dairy and poultry area of that State.

In the dairy and poultry area of central Maine (DP-3), an average of about 45.5 percent of the area was in farms in 1949, and the counties averaged 63,628 acres of harvested crops.

In the dairy and general farming area (DG-5) only about 29.4 percent of the land area was in farms, and the counties selected as representative of this area averaged only about 25,818 acres of cropland per county.

Land use is less intensive in area DG-5. Farmers in general receive a part of their livelihood from some place other than the farm. If the family does depend on the farm for sole support, the standard of living is lower than in the more intensive farming areas.

The most important trends in the use of land resources of New England are these: A decided decline in the acreage of agricultural land; some reduction in acreage of rural lands because of industrial expansion, wide highways, and the like; rapid expansion in the use of land for recreation; and continued exploitation of forests.

The return of land to forests offers the obvious advantage of better soil protection. It also offers a source of income, which sometimes is better than the income realized from cropping marginal lands. The reforestation of some of the more sloping uplands consequently should be encouraged, especially in sections where the soils are thin and infertile.

About 19 percent of the land in farms designated as cropland in 1957 cannot be cropped in the regular rotation because of erosion hazards or physical limitations. One percent of the area should be reforested, 3 percent should be in permanent grass cover, and the remaining 15 percent should be used for permanent meadows.

Participation in conservation programs has been good in some sections, but to achieve the objectives of conservation in a reasonable time, the rate must be speeded up.

The use of fertilizers has been high in this area for many years. There is little need for increased fertilization on the intensively grown crops, but greater fertilization of forage crops should be encouraged. Phosphorus and potash are especially beneficial for the forage legumes. Many of the coarser soils are low in available potash, and their phosphorus levels are inadequate for such crops as alfalfa and red clover. Heavy fertilization of meadows with a complete fertilizer high in nitrogen has produced good yields of forage.

Agricultural limestone needs to be used in greater amounts in all of the New England States. The amounts applied in 1954 in each of the six States might well be doubled.

Proper management could double the production of the forested lands.

Drainage, renovation of hay pastures, and fertilization could raise forage yields about 30 percent.

Increases in yields of nonforage crops can be expected from improvements in fertility, changes in land use, and conservation of water for crop use. The increases in yields of small grains would be sizable, while those of vegetables, potatoes, and tobacco would be slight.