five years, several types have been 

 tried in connection with various 

 frozen food projects at the Universi- 

 ty of New Hampshire. Prior to the 

 present year's studies, the only con- 

 tainer which proved entirely satis- 

 factory was a heavily paraffin-coated 

 box, prepared by hand-dipping an 

 ice-cream carton in melted wax. 



This year 14 new types of contain- 

 ers, which are available to the public, 

 have been tested. Nine of them were 

 used for storing frozen squash. Only 

 one of the nine types showed any 

 appreciable loss in weight over a 

 six-month storage period. Five ad- 

 ditional new types have been used 

 in the storage of berries, frozen in 

 a syrup medium. No appreciable 

 changes in weight were noted over 

 a ten-month storage period. 



H. J. PURINTON 



The Cobalt Content of Hay Can 

 Be Increased by the Application of 

 Cobalt to the Soil. The cobalt con- 

 tent of timothy grown on a Paxton 

 soil was raised from a low level of 

 00.3 ppm to 0.41 ppm by the addi- 

 tion of 2 lbs. of cobalt per acre and 

 to 0.98 ppm by the addition of 5 lbs. 

 of cobalt per acre. Applications of 

 nitrogen increased the yield but de- 

 creased the phosphorus, cobalt, and 

 manganese content. Liming de- 

 creased both the cobalt and manga- 

 nese content. Applications of po- 

 tassium increased the manganese 



content. 



G. P. Percival 

 Dorothy Josselyn 



Agricultural Economics 



Hoiv Many Man Minutes Are 

 Necessary To Do the Daily Routine 

 Winter Chores on a Herd of 40 

 Cows? Data taken on five very 

 efficient farms during the year indi- 

 cate that in a modern stable good 

 managers are doing the daily routine 

 of winter chores in 450 to 500 man 

 minutes. A few are doing these 

 tasks in about 325 man minutes. 

 With the elimination of unessential 

 practices, and the adoption of 

 simplified procedures, some of the 

 operators may cut chore work in the 

 next few years to as low as 280 man 

 minutes for 40 cows. This is seven 

 man minutes daily per cow. These 

 data do not include labor on care of 

 milking equipment. 



The operation of feeding took a 

 little over 100 man minutes for 40 

 cows on four farms and less than 50 

 minutes on the fifth farm. Roughly, 

 a third of the total feeding time was 

 used in preparation or getting feed 

 from storage to the stable ready to 

 feed. Considerable progress is ex- 



pected in the future in this phase of 

 the feeding operation. 



One operator spent 29.9 man 

 minutes sweeping in front of the 

 cows. This procedure can be re- 

 duced to about six minutes by the 

 elimination of unessential practices 

 and the substitution of special low- 

 cost equipment for the narrow 

 broom. Total feeding time can be 

 reduced to 40 man minutes on some 

 farms. 



The disposal of manure and clean- 

 ing back of the cows, including 

 spreading of sawdust for bedding, 

 took from 70 to 90 man minutes 

 where combination truck-carrier 

 equipment was available. One oper- 

 ator, who had improvised a home- 

 made gutter cleaner and had saw- 

 dust stored overhead, did the work 

 in 56 man minutes. The use of a 

 special sweeper reduced the time 

 needed to clean the alleyway back of 

 the cows on one farm from 3.10 to 

 0.48 man minutes. 



