11 University of New Hampshire [Sta. Bull. 322 



the same quality of milk to the same market through the same agen- 

 cy received wide differences in rate per hundredweight and some of 

 the differences are difficult to defend on the basis of the current 

 year's operations. Thus Farm A in figure 10 with 3.5 per cent milk 

 received $1.44 per hundredweight, in comparison with $1.76 on Farm 

 B testing 3.3 per cent. 



The production of milk on Farm \ meets the market requirement 

 nearly as well as Farm ]> and yet 46.7 per cent of the total sales for 

 the period brought surplus prices as compared with 8.3 per cent for 

 the latter. 



Potatoes 



In producing the chief cash crop of potatoes an average of 145.6 

 hours of man labor and 98.6 hours of horse labor were required per 

 acre. Only seven operators required less than 100 man hours and 

 four required more than 200 hours of man labor. Many of the farm- 

 ers have cut production costs since the potato study of 1930 but at 

 least 14 of the operators have very high labor requirements.* These 

 can well examine present practices. 



The chief difference in production costs arises out of the digging- 

 operation and since this represents a peak in labor requirement, bet- 

 ter practices in this operation would level off the labor load or en- 

 able the operator to grow a larger acreage with present labor. Sev- 

 eral operators with small acreages or rocky land do not attempt to 

 use diggers. On several larger acreages the witch grass develops a 

 thick sod late in the season after the vines have declined and the 

 digging operation, either by hand or by machinery, is greatly hand- 

 icapped. Ten operators used 100 or more hours in digging potatoes 

 and hauling to storage. 



An average of 1,869 pounds of fertilizer. 20 l)ushels of seed, and 

 $5 for spray material was used per acre. 



Total Labor Requirements 



Since oats, hay, silage crops, and potatoes have different seasonal 

 demands for labor and power, a combination of these crops which 

 takes full advantage of available labor may be more profitable than 

 si)ecializing in any one crop. The four figures 11, 12, 13. and 14 in- 

 dicate the distribution of the man labor on four farms. In the first 

 case (F"ig. 11) on a dairy farm with 27 cows, one acre of potatoes, 

 75 acres of hay, and 10 acres of grain, there are ^lack labor periods 

 in June, the last jiart of August, and short periods in September and 

 October. 



On the svcond iarni (Fig. 12) with 16 cows, 52 acres of hay, 5 acres 

 of grain, and five acres of potatoes, the labor demand in September 

 and October is raised considerably by potato harvest. There were 

 slack periods in June, the first 10 days of July, and the first 10 days 

 of September. 



On the third farm (Fig. 13) with 19 cows, 40 acres of hay. 14 acres 

 of grain, and 10 acres of potatoes, there was a high labor require- 



•Bulletin 239, "Potato Production Costs in New Hampshire," M. F. AbcU, New Hampshire Ag- 

 ricultural Experiment Station. 



