12 N. H. Agri. Experiment Station [Bulletin 298 



Forestry on Farms 



While a considerable portion of the area in farms is woodland, it fur- 

 nished little activity except for cordwood for home use. Total sales 

 amounted to $17,521, or an average of $69.00 per farm. On 180 of the 

 farms no sales were reported. On two farms small saw-mills harvested 

 timber from the woodlots. Milling was in these cases an integral part 

 of the farm organization. The importance of forestry is not confined 

 to the individual farm woodlots, and the relation of the farm opera- 

 tors to the timber resources of the area as a whole will be taken up in a 

 later section. 



Man Work Units 



On the basis of estimates of the days of work normally required to 

 grow and harvest the crops and take care of the livestock, the average 

 organization represented 74 man work units or somewhat less than one- 

 third of a full one-man farm. Seventy-eight places represented less 

 than 50 man work units and can be regarded as rural residences. Only 

 26 had over 200 man work units and might be considered full one-man 

 farms. This measure indicates the size from an organization point of 

 view, but since much of the tillage is not aggressively operated and 

 yields are low, the situation is exaggerated on partially abandoned 

 farms. The location and extent of agriculture according to this 

 measure are indicated in Plate 4. (Page 36) 



Gross Sales of Agricultural Products 



Gross sales of agricultural products give a more accurate measure of 

 the extent of the present commercial agriculture. A summary of 252 

 records, which include practically all the actual farms, shows a gross 

 income from sale of agricultural non-forest products for 1934 of $73,- 

 426. Thus, an area comprising 3V2 pe^ cent of the acreage of New 

 Hampshire accounts for only .5 per cent of the State's commercial 

 agriculture. 



The distribution of farms according to gross sales of agricultural 

 products shows the situation in detail and indicates the low returns on 

 most farms. Forty-six per cent of the farms sold less than $50 worth 

 of agricultural products, and only eight per cent sold more than $1,000 

 worth. 



The farm organization of the groups with low sales of agricultural 

 products indicates that the operators are not equipped or prepared for 

 commercial farming. In the case of Group I, with less than $50 sales 

 per farm, the average farm can be briefly described as 57 acres of 

 woodland and wooded pasture, 17 acres of open tillage, 1 cow, 1/2 heif- 

 er, 1/^ horse, 8 hens, and .4 pig. The livestock represents roughly the 

 present carrying capacity of the farms when all grain is purchased. 

 The situation in other groups can be noted in Tables 3 and 10. The 

 extent of sales on individual farms by location is indicated in Plate 5. 

 (Page 37) 



From a commercial farming viewpoint the production of this area 

 is not important and the trend seems to indicate further decline. On a 

 few good farms well located as to main roads the production of crops 

 and livestock products may well become more intensive in the next 



P 



