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



21 



In a broad way it will be advantageous and socially desirable to en- 

 roll all farms that represent commercial farming opportunities. This 

 probably would include most of the present active commercial farms 

 and probably 50 to 75 per cent of the less active commercial farms. 

 Other farms which represent permanent part-time or residence loca- 

 tions might well be included. In these latter groups, however, the main 

 emphasis should be on woodlot management, soil-building practices 

 being confined to such small areas of tillage land or pasture as will 

 actually be needed in the future on farms of this type. Under the pres- 

 ent plan of computation, the allotments on resident farms would be 

 insignificant. For instance in the group of 805 resident farms, 496 

 have less than 11 acres of tillage. With a different plan £»f computing 

 allotments, there would be an opportunity for these non-commercial 

 farms to develop their woodlands and in most cases this is in the direc- 

 tion of the best use of land. It may be in the social interest to include 

 certain farms that will be abandoned in the next decade provided near- 

 ly all the allotment went into tree planting and woodlot improvement 

 since this is the logical trend. Summer places with large acreages of 

 tillage land which will eventually go out of cultivation might be en- 

 rolled ; but only woodlot practices should be encouraged. In this case 

 local assets are being developed which provide productive work for lo- 

 cal people now and in the future. 



The problem of determining the best forest practices is one largely of 

 predicting what degree of management of timberlands is socially profit- 

 able. Certain areas of woodlands may be in such condition that spend- 

 ing money and effort on their improvement would not be profitable. 

 This situation logically may bar individual farms from carrying out 

 woodlot practices. On the other hand, some farm operators who have 

 woodlots especially accessible to good local timber markets can profit- 



Table 14. Distribution of 1,869* farms according to the nuTnber of animal 



units per acre of tillage in 1937. 



* Thirty-one farms were excluded from this table. Ten had no tillage 

 and on 21 farms the animal unit-tillage area ratio was not determined. 



