Back to Science & Society Lesson Home Page


This map illustrates the percentage change in the acres of the average farm in each county of Michigan from the years 1982 to 1992.  The darker red colors indicate greater increases in farm size.  As you can see while the first map indicates that in general the number of farms per county tends to decrease, this map indicates that at the same time the average acreage of each farm tends to be increasing.  Perhaps some of the land from the lost farms are being picked up by other farms.