of these businesses handle no grain-feeds at all. With the growth of special- 

 ization in the grain-feed business has come the opportunity for operating 

 economies and relatively lower net costs to producers. 



Number and Location of Retail Outlets. 



Figure 3 shows the location by towns of 178 retail grain dealers 

 in New Hampshire in 1953. The numbers by counties were as follows: 

 Hillsboro 40; Merrimack, 26; Rockingham, 23; Grafton, 22; Coos, 16; 

 Cheshire, 14; Strafford, 13; Carroll, 9; Belknap, 8; and Sullivan, 7. The 

 preceding numbers include some general stores, but probably do not fully 

 reflect the number of general stores, hardware stores, and other retail 

 businesses, primarily concerned with lines other than grain-feeds, who may 

 still sell some grain-feeds.* However, the percentage of total grain-feeds 

 sold through these latter outlets is undoubtedly small. 



Figure 3 shows the predominant effect of railroad routes upon the 

 location of retail outlets. 



Importance of Multiple-Outlet Firms. 



From data available, it seems reasonable to conclude that the majority 

 of retail grain-feed outlets in New Hampshire are part of the distributive 

 setups of firms supplying more than one outlet within the State. There were 

 78 retail outlets owned by or aflfiliated with three companies furnishing 

 this type of data. The number of owned or affiliated outlets of seven com- 

 panies (including the preceding three) was 100. These data are known to 

 exclude two or three additional companies who have a substantial number 

 of owned or affiliated retail outlets, and also do not include any companies 

 with only two or three outlets in the State. 



Size of Business. 



The question of size of business of retail outlets can be approached 

 in a number of ways. Herein, this is done on two bases: (1) comparison 

 between areas (counties), and (2) measures of variation between individ- 

 ual units. The former is of limited use inasmuch as the political units 

 (county) involved probably bear only partial relationship to the economic 

 units (trade areas for retail outlets). However, such a comparison was the 

 best available inasmuch as political units form the basis for the breakdown 

 of pertinent statistical information. The latter approach is based upon data 

 from about 25 individual retail outlets, or 14 percent of the total number 

 shown in Figure 3. The outlets forming the sample are concentrated in 

 the southeastern quarter of the State. 



There are presented in Table 9 measures of the size of business of 

 retail grain-feed outlets by counties and larger cities, as compiled from data 

 presented earlier and from the 1948 census of Manufacturers. The data on 

 average tons sold per dealer in 1953 show the tendency for a larger-than- 

 average size of business in the leading feed-grain consuming counties of 

 Hillsboro, Rockingham, and Merrimack. The above-average figures for 

 Strafford and Sullivan counties result from the assumption that in-county 

 dealers make sales approximating the county consumption. This is invalid 

 for some areas, including the two preceding ones, as it is known that out- 



* The New Hampshire Register for 1953 listed 326 general stores and 151 retail 

 hardware stores. No information is available to indicate the number selling grain-feeds. 



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