24 EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 344 



Man}- of the lower income and occupation owners of waterfront 

 homes have vacations that are limited to only part of the summer. The 

 number and desires of nonowners with limited vacations create a brisk 

 demand for rental of waterfront cottages. Many waterfront owners 

 therefore use their summer homes during their own vacations and can 

 rent them readily during the remainder of the season, if they wish. 

 Income from renting often is sufficient to pay the year-round main- 

 tenance expenses, and enables many persons, otherwise unable, to en- 

 joy the luxury of a vacation home. 



Occupancy of open country homes is more casual and for longer 

 periods, and the opportunity for extended rental is less. Open country 

 home owners spend more time "puttering" about their properties, add- 

 ing personal touches to the buildings and grounds, and creating an ul- 

 timate yCar-round home, in many cases. They are thus more reluctant to 

 rent to strangers than are the owners of simple vacation cottages. The 

 more elaborate, better furnished, and more extensively used waterfront 

 homes were rented less frequently than the ordinary lake cottages, 

 and were similar to the open country homes in this respect. 



Farming and Conservation on Summer Properties 



Summer residents have not undertaken extensive farming or con- 

 structive land management practices. The cutting of hay or the use of 

 pastures by neighboring farmers was common during the early years 

 after purchase; beyond that the policy of summer residents has been to 

 let nature take its course on the land. The result has been a gradual re- 

 version of (men fields to brush and then to second-growth forest cover. 



In all three towns, reversion to forest cover is under way. The 

 maximum of cleared land was reached during the latter half of the 

 19th century, and the gradual decline in farming has surrendered addi- 

 tional acres to the forest with each passing year. 



Waterfront properties are limited in acreage, and the possibilities 

 for farming are few. Two small back-yard gardens and a few instances 

 of small-scale forest restoration following the hurricane of 1938 were 

 the extent of land management practices by waterfront owners. 



Farming was more common in the case of open country proper- 

 ties. Two-thirds of the open country properties had some acreage of 

 open tillable land at the time of the survey, and one-quarter had more 

 than 25 acres. Many farmers in areas of recent summer development 

 have used summer home lands to provide part of their farm needs. 

 Ha)' was cut by neighboring farmers on nearly half of the open conn- 

 try properties, most commonly in Sanbornton and Tuftonboro (Table 

 5). In Sanbornton. there were more active farmers to take the hay 

 and more summer home properties on which hav iields had been main- 

 tained during recent years. In Tuftonboro, two farmers cut small 

 acreages of hay on many properties, accounting for a majority of the 

 cases. 



