Agricultural Research in New Hampshire 



ANOTHER YEAR of \\ ar has had its repercussions on research work 

 in agriculture. Problems of maintenance of personnel, as well as the 

 replacement and addition of equipment, are bound to increase with the 

 need for more men and more machines for the ever-broadening and more 

 intensified battle fronts. To all this must be added the newer demands for 

 farm research in the solution of acute problems incident to an ever- 

 increasing need for food production, regardless of lessening supplies of 

 labor, feed, fertilizer, equipment and what not. On the spur of the mo- 

 ment, so to speak, much of the time and energy in our organization have 

 been directed to\\ard searching out suitable substitutes for unobtainable 

 supplies in the feeding of animals, in the fertilizing of crops, or in the pro- 

 tection of crops against diseases and insects. Again, studies of the con- 

 servation of gas and tires in marketing farm products and the more effi- 

 cient use of machinery and human labor on the farm have led to some 

 interesting discoveries. 



BUILDINGS 



Partitions in the basement of Morrill Hall have been rearranged to 

 provide more room for agricultural economics, particularly for statistical 

 laboratory work, and an additional small office has been made possible. 

 Eor Entomology, a new glass extension at the rear of Nesmith Hall has 

 provided some 1600 square feet of laboratory space of a greenhouse 

 nature. At the same time, this arrangement has released a somewhat com- 

 parable space in the university greenhouses for the use of botany and hor- 

 ticulture. One of our sheep barns has had its dirt floor replaced with con- 

 crete on which adjustable stalls and stanchions will be erected to provide 

 for the accommodation of a more adequate population of calves and other 

 livestock units in our feeding projects. 



EQUIPMENT 



In spite of buying handicaps we have been able, with patience and 

 persistence, to add some new equipment of much importance in pursuing 

 new projects geared to the war effort. For example, a Beckman spec- 

 trophotometer and a Klett fluorimeter have added much to our resource- 

 fulness in biological chemistry and home economics. An ophthalmoscope 

 is proving useful in experimental nutrition work with larger animals. Al- 

 so, ordinary needs in the line of analytical balances, ovens, refrigerators, 

 etc., have been met reasonably well, sometimes with new equipment, but 

 quite as often by swapping between laboratories on campus or by pur- 

 chasing them second-hand. For our field work, particularly in agronomy, 

 we were able to buy a Ford-Ferguson outfit of tractor and equipment, 

 without which it would have been impossible to provide man and equip- 

 ment labor to continue some of our plot work. Toward the same end, a 

 mower for the horticulture tractor has been of inestimable value in per- 

 forming the orchard work and accomplishing it on time. 



