The Agricultural Conservation Program in 

 New Hampshire 



by 



Harry C. Wood worth and Victor H. Smith 

 New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station 



and 



Emil Rauchenstein 



Bureau of Agricultural Economics 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture 



The Problem 



'PHIS study was undertaken : first, to determine the extent of partici- 

 pation in the 1936 and 1937 Agricultural Conservation programs in 

 New Hampshire, the reasons for incomplete participation, the changes 

 that have been made in farm practices, and, if possible, to discover more 

 effective ways of encouraging desirable farm practices ; secondly, to de- 

 termine the probable long-time effect of the practices on the economy 

 of the individual farm and to project as far as possible the influence of 

 the program on the agriculture of the state. 



The Procedure 



Twelve towns well distributed over the state and fairly representative 

 of the agriculture of the entire state were selected. (Fig. 1) The im- 

 portant types of farming areas were represented. ^ It was noted in the 

 analysis of the census data that these towns represent approximately 

 one-tenth of the state 's agriculture, containing as they do 8.9 per cent of 

 the farms, 9.4 per cent of total farm land, 9.8 per cent of tillage acres, 

 9.8 per cent of cows milked, 10.0 per cent of hens, and over 12 per cent 

 of orchard and vegetable acres. 



A visit was made to each farm in the 12 towns and information ob- 

 tained on acreage of each crop in 1935, 1936, and 1937 ; numbers of 

 each class of livestock ; practices that have been followed ; extent of par- 

 ticipation in the Agricultural Conservation Program ; reactions of farm- 

 ers to the program and their suggestions for its improvement. This 

 information obtained directly from the farmers was checked with the 

 official work sheets of the county conservation committees. 



Nineteen hundred farms were included in the survey. All had suf- 

 ficient acreage to come within the census definition of a farm, although 

 242 of them were probably not occupied at the time of year when the 

 census was taken. (Table 1) In the survey, farm visits were made 

 systematically by means of town maps which had been prepared in the 

 type-of-farming project. While more farms were found than are in- 

 dicated in the 1935 census, the number of cows, young stock, acres of 

 orchard, and acres of vegetables are approximately in agreement. Num- 



^ Grinnell, H. C; Type-of -Farming Areas in New Hampshire; New Hamp- 

 shire Agricultural Experiment Station, Circular 53, 1937. 



