Finger Lakes history · regional story
Cabbages and orchards in Cayuga County’s farm census
The 1935 agricultural census counted more than vineyards. Cayuga County’s column records cabbage fields, sweet corn, tomatoes and land in orchards and vines.
Cayuga County’s farming appears crop by crop in the 1935 agricultural census. The column for vegetables harvested for sale records 816 farms reporting cabbages in 1934, on 1,549 acres. Sweet corn appears on 339 reporting farms and 689 acres; tomatoes on 140 and 78 acres. 1935 Census of Agriculture, New York, County Table VI.
Another part of the table combines land in fruit orchards, vineyards and planted nut trees. For 1935 it records 2,002 reporting farms and 7,233 acres in that category. Grapes have their own rows too: 882 reporting farms, with 122,952 pounds harvested in 1934. 1935 Census of Agriculture, New York, County Table VI.
These are county figures, not totals for the Owasco Lake or Cayuga Lake watershed. The reporting-farm counts belong to particular crop categories and should not be added together to estimate the county’s total number of farms. The table gives a useful outline of agricultural production; it does not name the people who planted, picked, packed or sold the crops.
Sources & research notes
Review status: Developing history. Human editorial review is pending.
Written and source-checked with AI assistance under an owner-authorized editorial process. This is not a personal review by Riley or an independent historian. Sources and unresolved questions are listed below; corrections are welcome.
- What the records establish
- The census records several commercial vegetable crops alongside orchards and vines in Cayuga County. Its harvest figures refer to 1934; the orchard and vine inventory rows refer to 1935.
- What remains uncertain
- County aggregates do not identify individual holdings, workers, wages, buyers or lake-specific acreage. No farm-by-farm or labor story is inferred from these totals.
- What we are researching next
- Use dated agricultural schedules, directories, farm papers and properly consented oral histories to connect the county totals to particular places and working lives.
Sources
- 1935 Census of Agriculture, New York, County Table VI — United States Bureau of the Census; 1935 census; crop harvests in 1934 and orchard/vineyard land reported for 1935. Locator: Printed page 72 / PDF page 1: Cayuga County column, rows 37–42, 54–57 and 78–81. Table heading distinguishes vegetables harvested for sale, land in orchards/vineyards/planted nut trees and grape vines/harvest units.. Accessed October 22, 2026.