Show REA setup gives impetus to farm electrification hall half of all united states farms have been electrified since the REA program was started in announcing the basic allot ments for REA loans in the states the department of agriculture corn coin pared the number of farms in each state with the total number of farms in the state t to 0 give the percentage of rifled farms the eight states having the highest proportion of electrified farms were connecticut with 98 5 per cent followed by rhode island massachusetts new jersey wash ington new york idaho and ore gon all of which were more than 92 per cent electrified at the other end of the list were north dakota with only a little more than 15 per cent of the farms electrified preceded by south da kota mississippi mis sis sippi nebraska ten bessee new mexico montana and kansas which had nearly 42 per cent electrified the other 32 states ranged be tween the 42 per cent and 92 per cent limits for the country as a whole the july 1947 1917 figures show 61 per c cent ent of all farms electrified as compared with 54 3 per cent a year earlier nearly farms were electrified during the 1947 fis cal al year the largest increase on record for any year since the pro gram started in 1935 less than 11 per cent of U S farms had electric service |