Early Farm Statistics
By: Matt K. and Spencer P.
What can you find out by looking at old farming statistics?
How did farmers use their land?
Ludlow Agricultural Profile
A History of Ludlow
We looked at an early Ludlow Agricultural Profile that gave farm statistics from 1801-1974. In 1801, the town assessors were Pliny Sikes, Steven Jones, and Timothy Nash. They listed all the farms that were in Ludlow. There were both large farms and small farms. They list 103 farms in 1801, and 38 of them were over 100 acres each. Farm animals included cows, horses, and oxen. They also had swine (pigs), sheep, and chickens. We saw a big increase in sheep in the 1830’s when Ludlow had wool mills. We could also see a huge increase in the number of cows in the later part of the 1800’s. That is when Ludlow had a lot of dairy farms. As time goes on, more regular houses are built and there are a lot less farms.
Farmers only used a small part of their land for growing crops. Most of their land was full of trees or land not used. The main crops in Ludlow were corn and rye. They also grew oats, wheat, barley, peas, and beans. They would send their grain to the gristmill to be ground up. If the farmer needed money, he could sell his grain or sell a farm animal. They didn’t need much money because they grew or had most of everything they needed.