June, 1939] The Agricultural Conservation Program in N. H. 



17 



not be so important. On the 227 active commercial dairy farms only 

 759 acres of tillage land or 5.8 per cent were on farms where no reseed- 

 ing was done in 1937. On a few farms seeding is done every other 

 year but in a detailed examination of records this factor was unimpor- 

 tant. 



TILLAGE ACRES 

 (THOUSAND) 



0-19 .Z-.-O 



ANIMAL UNITS PER ACRE 

 Figure 3. Tillage acres distributed according to animal units 

 per acre. The shaded portion represents acreage enrolled 

 in the conservation program. 



The lack of aggressive management of tillage land as shown in the 

 failure to reseed is another indication of a situation leading toward a 

 gradual decline in yielding power on non-commercial farms. In the 

 minds of the operators as expressed in their actions aggressive man- 

 agement will not pay and so the land declines in agricultural produc- 

 tion, lo 



Since reseeding was increased in 1937 over that of 1935 the data were 

 examined to determine where this increase took place, and especially to 

 analyze the significance of the change. First of all, it was noted that 

 when the farms were sorted according to the per cent of reseeding in 

 1935 and in 1937, there was a decrease of farms where no reseeding 

 was done. Approximately one-tenth of the total tillage land moved 

 from farms with no reseeding practices to farms associated with re- 

 seeding. 



On the 376 commercial dairy farms 133 operators reseeded the same 

 acreage in 1937 as in 1935, 67 reseeded less, and 176 reseeded more. Of 

 those who reseeded the same or less acreage, 69 reseeded less than 6 per 

 cent of the tillage land in 1937. It might be said that these had made 

 no improvement in seeding practices and were not reseeding enough 

 land. 



Thus, it would seem that payments for reseeding have not induced 

 certain operators who are deficient in reseeding practices to improve 



See footnote No. 9. 



