Dairy Opportunity Areas 

 In New Hampshire 



by 

 HARRY C. WOODWORTH AND JOHN C HOLMES 



T3airying- is the chief agricultural enterprise in New Hampshire, 

 but although dairy herds are kept in all occupied sections of the state, 

 there are wide differences in the opportunities for commercial dairy- 

 ing. Consequently, the industry is on a sound footing and is expand- 

 ing in certain areas, but in others is greatly handicapped and is de- 

 clining. 



These differences in opportunity can usually be traced to varia- 

 tions in market outlets, to the ease of cultivation and yielding capacity 

 of the soil, the productivity of the pasture, and to the amount of tillage 

 land on the farms. In areas where the tillage fields are large, level, 

 free of stone, and fertile, where the pastures are improved and pro- 

 ductive, the markets good and tlie marketing facilities adecjuate, the 

 farms tend to be aggressively managed under improved practices 

 which result in greater production of milk. Operators in areas with- 

 out these favorable characteristics are handicapped, and hundreds of 

 former commercial dairymen have found it necessary to abandon their 

 farms. Dairying has practically disappeared in some communities 

 where the conditions were unfavorable. 



The trend is toward abandonment in those areas where the 

 operators are most handicapped in producing and marketing their 

 milk, although certain of the more enterprising families may carry on 

 in these sections, and even with apparent success, for many years. 

 A few men persist in dairying against great odds in unfavorable 

 locations, but such situations will not usually induce others with 

 equal energy and persistence to take their places. In other areas where 

 the operators are less handicapped but must work against definite 

 odds, commercial dairying is still carried on. but the future is doubt- 

 ful. It will depend on price relationships in the industry as well as on 

 the alternative opportunities available to the young men coming from 

 those areas whether dairying on a commercial scale will be continued 

 there. 



New Hampshire's complicated pattern of land occupation ob- 

 scures the real situation to most casual observers. There are so many 

 residences of summer people, homes of business men employed in 

 near-by cities, and estates under paid managers, that improved dwell- 

 ings and large newly-painted white barns may have no relation to the 

 opportunities for commercial farming at all. Because the situation 

 is not just what meets the eye, many state and federal agencies, and 

 many business firms and individuals have needed more accurate in- 



