4 UxnKR^^iTY OK New Hampshire [Sta. Bull. 326 



costs and a satisfactory standard of living. This has been especially 

 true with those farms not on improved roads. 



Many of the soils of the state are derived from granites, wliich 

 usually produce gravelly or sandy soils with a low moisture holding 

 capacity. The soils also lack calcium. Such soils are not typically 

 grass soils, and when used for pasture without attention and treat- 

 ment, the pasture soon "runs out". Continued pasturing without re- 

 placing any of the plant food elements, even on good soil, eventually 

 lowers the fertility to a level where good pasture plants cannot sur- 

 vive. A coarse, rather sparse vegetation takes their place as a first 

 step in reforestation. But even without pasturing, reforestation 

 takes place slowly. Pasturing during this period retards forest re- 

 production, and usually results in an inferior stand of timber. Much 

 of this decline in the less favored areas has been balanced by expan- 

 sion in the areas with better soils or more accessible markets. The 

 present distributi(jn of the dairy industry is indicated in Xew Hamp- 

 shire Station Circular S3>. "Type of Farming Areas in Xew Hamp- 

 shire". 



Ha dairy industr}- is to be maintained in this state, serious atten- 

 tion must be given to pastures in regard to their maintenance and 

 improvement. Of the 960,876 acres* of so-called pasture land only 

 78,604 acres* are plowalile. Some of this tillable area, although 

 plowable, is too light to make good permanent pasture. Some of the 

 "other pasture", 205,986 acres,* is also unsuited for pasture purposes. 

 It is too rocky, too sandy, too steep, or otherwise unfitted for satis- 

 factory ])ermancnt pasture. 



H the 78,604 acres of plowable pasture and the 205,986 acres of 

 "other pasture", or such parts as would w'arrant, were improved, 

 most of the 676,286 acres of woodland pasture could be fenced out 

 without materially lessening pasture production. 



i\s it is, pasture needs are being sui)plied in several less satisfactory 

 ways: summer feeding of hay and silage, green feed, annual pas- 

 tures, rowen pasturing, and use of considerable quantities of com- 

 mercial feeding stufTs. Some part of this supplementary feeding 

 program will probably always be necessary on many farms, but at- 

 tempts should be made to provide as much of the summer feed 

 from permanent pasture as is economically possible. 



Rowen pasture on the farms studied furnished five per cent of the 

 pasture feed. It is doubtful if more than three per cent should be so 

 supplied, confined almost entirely to pasture on areas designated for 

 plowing for the next .year's tillage. A certain per cent of animal 

 ])asture is desirable on farms Avhere the j)asture soils are too light to 

 maintain good permanent pasture without occasional plowing. Some 

 supplemental green feed is needed primarily in the form of grass or 

 corn silage for very dry seasons, probably to the extent i>f about two 

 to three ])er cent of the pasture needs. There is some op])ortunity. 

 as crop ])r(jduction improves under the conservation program, to re- 

 lease some of the less suitable crop land for permanent pasture pur- 

 poses. However, with a purchase of some 1,422 tons of hav on the 



♦Census 19.35 



