The term “FARM” as generally used in zoning laws, means land used for production of crops, livestock grazing, raising of hay for cows to produce milk and other dairy products; raising of poultry and sale of chickens and eggs, or growing of fruit.
Reference Desk
Town of Lincoln v. Murphy, 314 Mass. 16 (1943)
One of the chief characteristics of a farm ordinarily is the use of the land for the production of crops by the cultivation of the soil, but farming activities are not confined to the tilling of the land and the harvesting of crops. Land may be utilized for grazing by livestock, or in raising hay for cows for the production of milk and other dairy products. A part of the land may be profitably employed in the raising of poultry and the sale of chickens and eggs. There may be an orchard upon the premises which would yield enough fruit to warrant the expenditure of labor in caring for the trees and collecting and marketing the fruit. What branches of these farming operations will be undertaken will depend upon whether they can be conducted at a profit, and that, in turn, depends upon the size of the farm, the nature of its soil, its capacity to produce sufficient crops to pay for their cultivation, the demand for different kinds of farm products, the availability of the markets, the practice of good husbandry, and other factors that must be considered in determining what use should be made of the land. The raising of hogs by a farmer not only for his own use but for market is not unusual. But the extent to which hog raising may be carried on in conjunction with other farming operations need not be decided here because no such operations were conducted.