June, 1940] AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN N. H. 7 



less to extension, which is merely teaching off campus. Research 

 must discover the facts, solve the problems, tabulate the results, and 

 help interpret them so that "he who runs" in his daily acivities "may 

 read." 



Agricultural research seeks to help the farmer gain control over 

 the problems that beset him. His is a hazardous business. Few who 

 have not had to live by it realize how hazardous. Only a dyed-in-the 

 wool optimist will presume to expect that all the risks in farming 

 can ever be removed by scientific research, but certainly many can 

 and must be if we are to survive the ravages of civilization. The 

 uncertainties of heat and cold, sunshine and rain must condition the 

 seedtime and the harvest, but more tangible and still less predictable 

 factors may bring disaster. Scarcely a year passes that some new 

 insect or disease does not make its appearance in the country if not 

 in our state. One needs but to look about him to be reminded of the 

 many things that have already been accomplished. Apples are spray- 

 ed ; potatoes are certified ; cattle and poultry are tested for diseases ; 

 soils are tested for liming needs ; seeds, feeds, fertilizers are checked 

 on their guarantees, etc. Somewhere along the line painstaking, ac- 

 curate research has made all such practices and services possible. 



And the work is still going on. Within this bulletin are to be 

 found references to a great variety of investigations relating to for- 

 estry (growth, marketing), botany and bacteriology (spraying, dis- 

 eases of plants, mastitis), entomology (insect records and controls), 

 agronomy (fertility, rotation, soil surveys), animal husbandry (nu- 

 trition, breeding), agricultural engineering (storage, farm machines), 

 poultry husbandry (feeding, brooding, diseases), agricultural chem- 

 istry (testing plants, soils, etc.), agricultural economics (land utiliza- 

 tion, types of farming, marketing), dairy husbandry (testing milk, 

 feeding calves, analysis of records), horticulture (strawberries, ap- 

 ples, vegetal)les.) These are problems that have developed on the 

 farmers' own farms. The solution may be found there, quickly or 

 through an elaborate experiment that will take some years ; or the 

 problem may be brought, in ]iart or as a whole, to the university lab- 

 oratories for investigation. Our extension personnel as well as stu- 

 dents and others keep the experiment station force in close touch 

 with such problems at their source. It is not possible to do all the 

 work requested. There are always more problems than can be un- 

 dertaken for want of money, personnel, or facilities. To do pains- 

 taking and accurate scientific research in agriculture worthy of 

 pu1)lic confidence and support requires Vv^ell-trained men and, in ad- 

 dition, land, livestock, buildings, and intricate laboratory equipment. 



Nearly one hundred fifty thousand dollars is spent annually by 

 your director assisted by a staff of some seventy-five people. Only 

 a few of these people work full-time on station problems ; their time 

 and remuneration are usually shared with the university in teaching, 

 to the benefit, we believe, of both types of work. Close cooperation 

 is also maintained with the extension personnel and in a few cases 

 time is divided with them. More than two-thirds of the money is a 

 direct grant from the United States government in annual install- 

 ments, starting with the Hatch act passed in 1887 and coming down 



