28 University ov New Hampshire [Sta. lUill. 322 



its the two enterprises are iu)t competitive for the avaihil)le hil)or or 

 for land. 



Dairying is associated with the production of hay and other rough- 

 age. The production of hay with its requirement of land and labor 

 also makes possible the dairy enterprise with its requirement of 

 labor directly on cows and on such other activities as manure haul- 

 ing. For this region as a whole, hay production cannot be consid- 

 ered alone, for its market is associated intimately with dairying in 

 general. 



In considering crop enterprises, therefore, while labor require- 

 ments in haying range frtmi S.2 to 24.7 man hours and average 9.7 

 man hours per acre on the grouj) of farms, each acre on the average 

 sui^iported an additional labor rec[uirement of approximately 54 

 hours directly t)n dairying and five hours on associated activities. 

 Dairying involves both feed i)roduction and care of dairy animals. 

 On the crop side, ha\ production represents an extensive use of 

 land, yet from the dairy enterprise i)oint of view it supi)orts an in- 

 tensive business. As an average for all the farms the requirements 

 for potatoes were 141 man hours ])er acre and- for hay and dairying 

 ap])roximately 69 hours per acre. Even these data must be taken as 

 estimates because a sharp division between potatoes and hay in- 

 volves arbitrary allocations of labor and other costs in certain prac- 

 tices. 



In this regit)!! both ha>- and ])t)tatoes are associated with liigh 

 labor recpiirements ])er acre, with the relation of 140 man hours for 

 potatoes to 70 for hay. The essential difference is that haying has a 

 definite seasonal recpiirement in harvesting season and a steady day 

 by day requirement in dairying, while potatoes have a rec|uirement 

 involving several jieaks at planting, spraying, and harvesting. How- 

 ever, within limits these i)eaks of labor refpiirements do not conflict. 



Diminishing Returns an Important Factor 



On a given farm, as the operator ai)])lies additional units of labor 

 and cai)ital to the production of hay on a given acre, the net returns 

 resulting from each additional unit at first increase and then decline. 

 (Fig. 15.) 



h'irst, if we assume a definite acreage o\ hay in relation to avail- 

 able machiner\ . the operator soon reaches a jioint where additional 

 labor in harvesting is not as proilucliNc as the preceding units of la- 

 bor. I'he hay, for instance, is not made much more valuable, if at 

 all, by fre(|uent handling in the curing jirocess. The records on the 

 group of 38 farms indicate a range of from 3.1 to 12.2 hours per ton 

 of hay harvested, which suggests that some of the operators put 

 considerable additional labor on hay. There is no evidence in this 

 study that the resulting output is more valuable. The operators 

 who use more than 10 hours per ton are securing low returns for 

 the last extra hour spent on hay harvested. 



Second, if we assume an efticient ratio of labor per acre and a def- 

 inite amount of available labor and ec|uipment and add acres of hay, 

 we become involvecl in lengthening the harvesting periorj. which in 

 turn involves changes in yield per acre and in quality of liay on that 



