Abstract
Contrary to the long-accepted “standard narrative” of a nineteenth century collapse, agri- culture in Massachusetts was stable through the first half of the twentieth century and reached its peak—“both in pounds and in dollars”—during World War II. Farmers made the transition from family-oriented production to commercial production over the course of the nineteenth century, and like the rest of the country’s farmers, intensified their operations in the twentieth century. Farmers specialized in a handful of valuable sectors—namely dairy, vegetables, fruit, and poul- try—and with innovations in method and technology, proximity to growing urban markets, and high prices for their produce, survived long after supposedly going “downhill.”