May, 1929] Potato Production Costs in New Hampshire 21 



TABLE XVIII. 

 Special Machinery Costs. 



♦Estimates of 57 growers for the crop year 1926 on an average area of 3.7 acres. 



proved sufficient. On witchy and heavy soils four spring tooth 

 harrowings, followed by a smoothing harrow, are necessary. When 

 more seem to be necessary it would probably be advisable to raise 

 some other crop than potatoes. 



The disk harrow was used by 78 per cent, of the farmers. It 

 was followed by a spring tooth on 27 per cent, of the farms, and 

 by a smoothing harrow on 62 per cent. On 22 per cent, of the farms 

 no disk harrow was used. Of these, 74 per cent, planted on old 

 ground or spring-plowed fields. The usual practice is to plant on 

 sod ground. 



Wherever a tractor is used for preparing the land, man labor 

 per acre is considerably reduced. In Grafton, Rockingham and 

 Belknap Counties the tractor was extensively used for plowing and 

 fitting. The cost per acre was not reduced. The main benefits 

 were in getting the work done more quickly and in taking advan- 

 tage of favorable weather. 



Planting and Digging 



In counties where much planting and digging is done by hand 

 the labor requirements are high. Note Coos, Cheshire and Sulli- 

 van Counties, where digging was largely done by hand, and Merri- 

 mack, Cheshire, Strafford and Sullivan Counties, where much of 

 the planting was done by hand. 



Northern Coos County suffers particularly in this regard. The 

 lack of labor saving machinery, especially diggers, added ap- 

 proximately 25 hours per acre to costs. With good help scarce and 

 high, a three day saving per acre is sufficient reason to own a dig- 

 ger. Only on the smaller areas is the digger cost per acre more 

 than the extra labor. Rocks and witch grass are two excuses usual- 

 ly offered for hand digging. If, however, some of the more suitable 

 land were substituted for the less suitable, much of this difficulty 

 would be overcome. Shorter rotations would also help materially 

 in overcoming witch grass. Until potato raising is considered of 

 sufficient importance to warrant the attention that is given the 

 crop on some of the farms in the southern part of the county and 



