Many subsistence farms were on the scene in 1920 and surplus labor on 

 these farms was an excellent source of manpower for the few 40- and 50- 

 cow farms found in small numbers. The Colebrook area was more fortu- 

 nate than dairy areas to the south or in the Androscoggin River Valley. 

 Colebrook farms were larger, the fields freer of rocks and the climate and 

 soil better adapted to dairying. Small hill farms were still very common 

 in the Lancaster, Jefferson, Whitefield, and Dalton areas. 



The majority of the commercial dairy operations were small according 

 to today's conditions. Many herds contained from 3 to 10 cows. Small 

 volumes coupled with less favorable prices and better off-farm employment 

 opportunities encouraged many rural families to give up farming. Farm 

 numbers, cow numbers and harvested cropland declined in the late 1920's 

 as adjustment to new conditions were made (Table 1). 



Table 1. IVumber of farms, milk cows and acreage of cropland, 

 Coos County, New Hampshire, 1925-54* 



Item 



Number of farms 



Number of milk cows 



Acres of cropland and 



cropland pasture 70814 61408 55413 60900 51139 46605 35204 



* Agricultural Census, Bu. of the Census, U. S. Dept. of Commerce. 



The conditions of the 1930's and 1940's interrupted and postponed ad- 

 justments in farming. Nonfarm job opportunities vanished during the eco- 

 nomic depression of the 1930's. Rural people were held on farms and some 

 urban dwellers moved to subsistence-type farms. Instead of a decline in 

 farm numbers which amounted to about 28 farms per year in the late 

 1920's, farm numbers increased an average of 15 per year during the 

 early 1930's. The very favorable price conditions that existed during the 

 early 1940's also tended to maintain the number of operating farms. 



Production methods and farm equipment changed drastically between 

 the 1920's and the 1940's. Tractor power replaced horse power and rubber 

 tires permitted over-the-road travel for most equipment. The changes in 

 technology enabled the farm family to operate on a much larger scale. 

 As increased supplies of equipment became available at the end of World 

 War II, farmers who were unable to adjust to the "new age" of mechan- 

 ization gave up farming and relinquished use of their cropland to those 

 who could make or continue the change in mechanization. 



Farm numbers dropped sharply from 1945-50. The Korean War momen- 

 tarily stabilized dairy farm numbers but the pressure of postwar prices 

 caused a further decline in farm numbers and acreage of cropland har- 

 vested. 



The potato enterprise is the only other enterprise that competes with 

 dairying for use of the cropland in Coos County. Historically, most of the 

 dairy farms had small acreages of potatoes for sale as a cash crop. 

 However, as potato equipment became more specialized and costly, pro- 

 duction shifted to larger specialized units. A few large commercial potato 



10 



