June, 1939] The Agricultural Conservation Program in N. H. 9 



In addition there were a few classified as miscellaneous. This group 

 includes such locations as summer estates, hotels and boys' and girls' 

 camps, where no special effort was made in farming but hay was sold. 

 Several fur farms and highly specialized enterprises were included. 



The average organization of the farms is shown in Table 2, the dis- 

 tribution of farms by acres of tillage in Table 4. It is significant that 

 the 339 active commercial farms account for 60 per cent of the cows, 62 

 per cent of the young stock, 57 per cent of the hens, and 70 per cent of 

 the orchard acreage. (Table 3) On the other hand the 805 resident 

 farms which have about one-fifth of the tillage land account for very 

 little production. 



Enrollment and Participation 



In 1936, the first year of the conservation program, 342 operators, 

 representing 34 per cent of the land in farms, 36 per cent of tillage 

 land, 51 per cent of the cows, 21 per cent of the hens, 31 per cent of 

 orchard acres, and 47 per cent of vegetable acreage, were enrolled. In 

 1937, the second year of the program, 664 operators, representing 59 

 per cent of the land in farms, 59 per cent of the tillage land, 78 per cent 

 of the cows, 48 per cent of the hens, 76 per cent of orchard land, and 76 

 per cent of the vegetable acreage, were enrolled. (Table 5) 



It is evident that the program is not reaching all the farms and that 

 some of the livestock, orchard, and vegetable enterprises are not repre- 

 sented. Yet over 84 per cent of the active commercial farms — and with- 

 in that group 90 per cent of the tillage land, 92 per cent of the cows, 

 62 per cent of the hens, 90 per cent of orchard acres, and 95 per cent 

 of the vegetable acres — were on the farms that were enrolled in the pro- 

 gram. It would seem that the active commercial farmers, who were in 

 the best position to make use of practices and to cooperate with the pro- 

 gram, had enrolled. 



This good record for enrollment decreases progressively from the ac- 

 tive commercial farm group to the resident farms. In the latter case 8 

 per cent were enrolled. Only 12 per cent of their tillage land, 11 per 

 cent of their cows, 11 per cent of their hens, 16 per cent of their orchard 

 acres, and 10 per cent of their vegetable acreage were represented in the 

 enrollment. (Fig. 2) 



It is evident that the resident farmers and most of the subsistence 

 farmers were not interested in the program in 1937. They had little or 

 no manure to use on new seedings and most of them had no livestock to 

 require more roughage. The profitableness of carrying out agricul- 

 tural conservation practices under such conditions can be questioned. 

 Since many in this group have neither horses nor tractors, there is little 

 incentive to add lime, reseed, and add fertilizer. In addition many of 

 this group have other work and other opportunities and are not de- 

 pendent upon the land for their living. 



In summary it may be stated that about 84 per cent of the men 

 actively engaged in farming, 53 per cent of the men farming less ac- 

 tively, 34 per cent of the subsistence farmers, and 8 per cent of the resi- 

 dent farmers were enrolled in the program. To what extent it is so- 

 cially profitable to have a larger enrollment will be considered later. 



