barn chores. H. C. Grinnell investi- phate, making new seedings for hay 



gated rural taxation, and identified 10 land or pasture, improving pasture by 



types of farming areas on the basis of new seeding or top dressing with fertil- 



enterprise and use, the latter giving a izer, and in various other ways. Ap- 



complete and comprehensive analy- proximately 87 percent of those farms 



sis of New Hampshire agriculture. enrolled complied with the federal pro- 



The economic depression deep- ^'^ ^"^ qualified for payment of all or 



ened in the early 1930s and led to the P^ °^ ^^^'' allowance from the U.S. 



"New Deal" with its accompanying government. H. C. Woodworth, V. H. 



economic and social changes. Station ^"^^^' ^^ ^- Ranchenstein in "The 



personnel were asked to provide many Agricultural Conservation Program in 



types of information for newly created ^^^ Hampshire" (Station Bulletin No. 



federal agencies, one being the Civil ^^^' ^^^^^ indicated that the Program 



Works Administration. Experiment Practices would definitely show results 



Station personnel organized projects '" ^° y^^"' ^^^ ^^^ the significance of 



and employed staffs which compiled long-term results to New Hampshire 



data and statistics. Station Bulletin ^°^^^ ^°* ^^ measured from data ob- 



No. 290 by H. C. Grinnell, entitled *^^^^^ ^°^^^y ^^"^ ^^"^^ ^^ ^'^ ^t^te 



"RuralRealEstateTaxDelinquencyin ^^^^^'^ °^ inter-regional competition 



New Hampshire, "which resulted from ^°^ markets, 



one of these projects, was a forerunner Agricultural Engineering 



of later research on preferential as- Research in rural electrification was 



sessment for open space. In 1936, fol- initiated in 1925 under the direction 



lowing an agreement reached between of W. T. Ackerman, the objective being 



the New England Agricultural Experi- to provide information relating to ex- 



ment Stations and the Bureau of Agri- tension of electricity into rural areas, 



cultural Economics of the United Power companies and other organiza- 



States Department of Agriculture, a tions cooperated in the effort. Because 



full-time regional agent was employed of the cooperative approach over 60 



making possible planning and conduct percent of New Hampshire farms had 



of regional research in marketing and electricityby 1936. The milk cooler on 



agricultural economics. This person, the farm and the refrigerator in the 



A. G. Macleod, was housed in the farm home proved to be major uses of 



Department of Agricultural Econom- electricity, but a multitude of other 



ics at the University of New Hamp- uses of electric power made life on the 



shire. MacLeod, in a series of papers farm and in the home easier and more 



covering several years, investigated enjoyable. In the late 1930s, the value 



the supply and distribution of New of pneumatic tires on tractors and the 



Hampshire milk. design of farm potato storage were two 



The Agricultural Conservation of several projects undertaken. 



Program, a federal project, began in . . ^^'^^ agricultural engineers 



1936. In 1937, approximately 85 per- ^°^^^^ ^he Agronomy Department in 



cent ofactive commercial farms in New ^^3^' ^^^ ^^ ^^^5 Agricultural Engi- 



Hampshire were enrolled in the pro- neermg became a separate department, 



gram. A major objective of the program Agronomy 



was to conserve and build the soil F. W. Taylor, a graduate of Ohio State 



through use of lime and super-phos- University in 1900, came to the Ex- 



15 



