SURVEY OF FOUR TOWNSHIPS IN SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE. 17 



region are over 50 years of age. The results would seem to show 

 that a farmer's greatest earning capacity is before he readies the 

 age of 50 years. 



SYSTEMS OF FARMING. 



When the farmers stopped raising grain some 30 years ago, they 

 let their fields stay down in grass very mucli longer than formerly 

 and eventually forgot all about a rotation of crops. A great many 

 fields when they would no longer yield a fair crop of hay were turned 

 into pasture. Young pine, as well as other trees, soon sprang up in 

 these pasture fields, and to-day, instead of tillable fields, they are 

 young forests. Thus it is that the farmers of this region have no 

 definite system of management. Their present rotation, if it may 

 be called such, is corn, oats for hay, and then hay from four to six 

 years. Sometimes corn is planted twice in succession, and a few 

 farmers let the oats ripen and thrash them. It is significant that 

 only one thrashing machine was found in all the four towns surveyed. 

 Many farmers follow the method of seeding after haying or after the 

 oats have been taken off for hay. One great fault of this method is 

 that clover is freciuently omitted from the seeding and is not added 

 the following spring. Many farmers stated that they were not sow- 

 ing clover at all. By neglecting to get a good stand of clover when- 

 ever their land is seeded they are making a vital mistake, for clover 

 is, without doubt, the basis of a successful rotation in this section. 

 Whatever practice is followed, a shorter rotation must be used if 

 the supply of humus is to be maintained in the lighter soils of this 

 region. It is very probable that the use of lime on most of the soils 

 in tliis territory would help materially in obtaining a stand of clover. 



APPLICATION OF MANURE. 



In the application of fertilizers in this portion of New Hampshire 

 the common practice is to put all the manure on the corn ground, 

 either plomng it under or harrowing it into the soil after plowing. 

 Each of these methods seems to have produced good results on the 

 corn crop. The trouble is that when all the manure is put on the 

 corn crop nothing more is put on that field until five or six years 

 later, when corn is again planted. A much better plan is not to 

 make such heavy applications to the corn land and to top-dress the 

 new seeding of clover with part of the manure. 



FRUIT GROWING. 



Very little fruit except strawberries is grown on the lowlands of 

 this region on account of the early and late frosts that are of frequent 

 occurrence in the valleys. Apples thrive especially well on the 

 uplands, and peaches and grapes are cultivated to a considerable 



[Cir. 75J 



