24 



N. H. Agricultural Experiment Station [Sta. Bull. 314 



do many things that are not economically sound in the long period. 

 People are the important resources and any program should protect and 

 aid the minority group which is unfortunate in its present adjustment 

 to land. 



As a matter of fact, these families are not now deriving much from 

 the land and if the program is turned in the direction of sound forestry 

 improvement practices, the operator can earn his allotment largely 

 from his own labor and he is creating assets that will mean more pro- 

 duction and more employment later. 



Effect of Program on Dairy Production 



In general, the New England dairyman has a location advantage in 

 the production of fluid milk for New P]ngland markets, being protected 

 by high transportation costs from the competing milk production cen- 

 ters of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. This advantage, how- 

 ever, is tempered and checked by the supply of condensed milk and the 

 possibilities of new processes. 



In the production of cream the New England farmer has less ad- 

 vantage and the price of milk in terms of cream values would discour- 

 age production on many farms, except as an enterprise supplementary 

 to the regular dairy business. The location advantage in butter and 

 cheese production is still less and only a few farms would continue 

 production in competition with western farmers. 



Whenever New England production of milk greatly exceeds the re- 

 quirement for fluid milk, there is a tendency for the market price to be 

 pulled down toward the level of cream prices and finally toward the 



Table 16. Distribution of 1,869* farms according to per cent of tillage land 



reseeded 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. 



