48 N. H. Agricultural Experiment Station [Bulletin 266 



factory as this may be for urban residential use, it may not be a suf- 

 ficiently accurate criterion upon which to base the demand charge for 

 rural customers, although various area rates are applied in a variety 

 of ways. 



In applying this method to farms, most companies eliminate from 

 their calculations such space as attics, cellars, halls, closets and other 

 little used space, and secure their net area from the major rooms. In 

 the case of the outbuildings, it is difficult to establish a uniform scale 

 that adequately fits the variety of conditions existing. A small barn 

 or out-building may be given a one-room rating, and a large barn may 

 be considered as the equal of two or three rooms. 



In general the underlying principle is that the size of buildings is 

 the index to the electrical demand to be expected. This, in practice, 

 may not work out to be generally true in which case it usually results 

 in discrimination against the small farmer who happens to be burdened 

 with too generous a layout of buildings, but who is in reality doing only 

 a small or medium amount of business and may have a small family. 



For the large farmer, whose house is well utilized either with a good 

 sized family or with housing his hired help, and who is making actual 

 use of his many buildings, such a basis is fair and accurate, but only in 

 those cases, large or small, where the buildings happen to be in propor- 

 tion to the scale of operations is this area method an accurate index. 



By far the greater number of New England farm layouts are of that 

 generous, substantially built and long lasting type, of a generation or 

 more ago when families were large, when children remained on the 

 farm and worked and, when a farmer's affluence was indicated by the 

 size and character of buildings sheltering his family, stock, feed and 

 equipment. 



In subsequent years these properties have changed hands, and the 

 farm business in New England has undergone an adjustment to chang- 

 ing times and conditions. The ruggedly constructed buildings tliat 

 still stand are frequently only partly used. A large farm house may 

 have only two or three occupants who use only a part of the total 

 space — the rest being "closed off" and not in use. A large barn may 

 have only a few stancliions out of tlie total filled and many out-buildings 

 standing idle. It is evident that any unnecessary discrimination against 

 the small operator who is already over-taxed — many times with too 

 much upkeep and overhead from these same buildings — is in opposi- 

 tion to the prevailing situation. Another difficulty is the formation of 

 a satisfactory rule of thumb for applying this rate basis to the ever 

 varying conditions of one farm and another. It is frequently evi- 

 dent that one building should be included in the scale on one farm and 

 the same building on another should not — all of which is very difficult 

 of satisfactory explanation, no matter how just the cause. 



In general the experience on this project indicates that the area 

 basis is a doubtful index for farms, may not develop to be equitable 

 in a certain percentage of cases, and wliile it may have merit over pre- 

 vious methods for general use is probably not the ultimate form to be 

 desired. 



