June 1942] Agricultural Experiment Station 



buying- farms, prefer settling along the paved or better graveled roads. 

 Gradually, the population in the inaccessible area becomes old, the 

 farms are no longer aggressively managed, buildings fall into dis- 

 repair, equipment becomes obsolete, fields close in, and eventually the 

 area is classified by the local Agricultural Planning Committee as one 

 which represents little or no agricultural opportunity. This process 

 of decline — set into motion as paved roads and good graveled roads 

 gave the advantage to other sections of the community — is a slow one. 

 But its speed will later be accelerated. 



Area I in Barnstead is considered a good commercial farming 

 area, whereas Area II, whose soil is described by the zA.gTicultural 

 Planning Committee as "very similar to Area I" is a district of "for- 

 merly good farms representing opportunity not utilized now." The 

 chief reason for the decline in agriculture in Area II is, in the eyes 

 of the Committee, its inaccessibility. Its inaccessibility makes dairy 

 farming impossible. This similarity between the physical conditions 

 in the intensely farmed area which is served by good roads, and in 

 the declining area, which is inaccessible, is repeated over and over 

 again throughout the State. 



In a few towns, such as Springfield, the agricultural resources of 

 the whole town have largely disappeared because of a lack of hard- 

 surfaced roads. Springfield has only 5^ miles of State aid roads and 

 47 miles of town roads. To reclaim the agricultural resources in 

 Springfield, the committee believes that road improvement must be 

 accomplished first. "The committee does not feel that agricultural loans 

 and grants can solve the farm income problem. It believes the prob- 

 lem goes back to roads and markets. If improved roads and markets 

 could be made available first, then conservation practices could be 

 followed out." 



Farmers in some localities have had more dynamic proof of the 

 importance of roads to the prosperity of agriculture. They have seen 

 an area in their town, in which agriculture was dying, rejuvenated by 

 the reconditioning of a town road or the construction of a State road. 

 The Lempster Agricultural Planning Committee volunteered the opin- 

 ion that the T.R.A. road, now serving -Area IV, "saved the area." The 

 Plainfield committee believes that Area 5B could become a profitable 

 dairy area if the proposed State-aid road were completed. 



In other areas, unfortunately, deterioration in fields, outbuildings, 

 houses and equipment had progressed too far before better roads were 

 built. Even the best of roads could not save those areas. According 

 to the opinion of the Alton Agricultural Planning Committee, Route 

 11 A was built too late to save Area X, in Alton, for farming. Although 

 in the town of Newport, "town roads are sufficiently well maintained 

 that all areas are fairly accessible," the committee believes "that in 

 many situations better roads came too late to prevent some decline in 

 agriculture." 



Agriculture is not the only economic enterprise of New Hamp- 

 shire's rural areas whose prosperity, if not existence, depends upon 

 road accessibility. As in most intensely farmed areas, the most popu- 



