farms, especially when units are two- 

 man or larger in size. However, net 

 meome does show improvement on 

 the larger units. 



A detailed analysis was made of 

 the more profitable combinations of 

 owned and hired machinery and 

 equipment for representative dairy 

 farms, with special attention to the 

 extent to which hiring of custom ser- 

 vices would influence the farm or- 

 ganization and reduce costs of dairy 

 farm operation. This work indicates 

 that dairy farms should be equipped 

 with certain foundational machinery 

 and equipment such as a tractor, 

 manure spreader, mowing machine, 

 rake and wagon. These items of 

 equipment are used in repetitive jobs 

 and do not lend to custom hiring. 

 For the small farm with a herd of 

 18 cows or under, many of the other 

 cropping operations could be profit- 

 ably hired at present custom work 

 prices. Under certain conditions the 

 operators of the small units could 

 buy pieces of equipment that are 

 normally uneconomical and do cus- 

 tom work for other farmers. As farms 

 increase in size the opportunities for 

 economically using custom hired 

 equipment become fewer. 



This project has been carried on 

 in cooperation with the Bureau of 

 Agricultural Economics, U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture and the Uni- 

 versity of Connecticut. 



W. K. BURKETT 



Efficient Chore Practices 

 In Dairy Barns 



Large dairy farmers, confronted 

 with high labor costs, have made 

 progress in labor saving practices. 

 A number of operators have given 

 special attention to the storage and 

 handling of sawdust for bedding. 

 They are using more sawdust than 

 before as the old method of making 

 many trips from storage to stable, 

 carrying sawdust in small baskets, 

 required too much travel and time. 



A few dairymen have constructed 

 sawdust bins in the hay mow above 

 the cows. They can draw the bedding 

 from bins into special carts by gravi- 

 ty. The bins are usually filled by 

 means of a blower. 



One dairyman, in remodeling his 

 stable, left considerable space back 

 of the cows, and stores about 800 bu. 

 of sawdust along the barn wall. 



This operator is experimenting 

 with a special bin and may construct 

 this along both sides of the barn, in- 

 creasing his storage capacity to 1600 

 bu. Sawdust will be available at all 

 points back of the cows and can be 

 spread quickly and easily. Once 

 around the barn with a scoop shovel 

 completes the task of bedding. 



During the year estimates were 

 made on seven large dairy farms as 

 to the man hours spent on occasional 

 chores. These estimates adjusted to 

 a 40 cow herd basis adding up to 

 nearly 700 man hours a year or about 

 17.5 man hours per cow. 



H. C. WOODWORTH 



Harvesting and Marketing New 

 Hampshire Cucumbers under Contract 



This project was undertaken to 

 study the economic possibilities of 

 this crop in raising the income of 

 New Hampshire rural families, 

 especially families with available 

 labor, living on small part-time 

 farms. Due to the severe drought, 

 yields were generally low and finan- 

 cial results were not encouraging. 



An experiment was carried out on 

 one farm to measure the results from 

 different frequencies of picking. The 

 value of pickles per hour of picking 

 was $.98 on the basis of harvesting 

 six times a week and $2.02 on the 

 basis of harvesting two times a week. 



H. C. WoODWORTH 



Strawberry Marketing 



Studies were made with thirteen 

 strawberry varieties which show that 

 some keep much better than others 



