LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TAXATION 11 



1930 and 46 percent in 1940. In 1940 only 31.3 percent of the total 

 land area of the state was in farms, and only 20.9 percent of the farm 

 land (6.6 percent of the state) was used for crops. Approximately 85 

 percent was in hay; thus, only one percent of the total area of the 

 state was in crops other than hay. 



Table 2. The Number of Farms and Total Acres in Farms in New Hampshire, 

 BY Census Years, 1850 to 1940 



There are three distinct type-of-farming areas, even though 

 dairying is the major farm enterprise throughout most of the state.- 

 First, there is the specialized dairy industry of the Connecticut River 

 Valley, with some diversification (potatoes and pulpwood) in the 

 extreme north. Secondly, the southeastern portion of the state is an 

 area of mixed farming, more intensive but with much part-time farm- 

 ing. Here dairying is interspersed or combined with other enter- 

 prises, particularly poultry, fruit, and vegetables. Thirdly, there is a 

 type of farming particularly characterized by its subsistence nature 

 and designated as "highland" farming which occupies large portions 

 of the southeastern, central, and east central parts uf the state. This 

 "highland" type of farming area occupies nearly two-fifths of tlie 

 entire agricultural area of the state^and has more than two-fifths of the 

 highways. Unlike the other type-of-farming areas, it possesses little 

 of commercial significance, except that it ofifers a home and a job 

 to a major portion of its residents. The northern half of the state, 

 east of the Connecticut River Valley, is mostly nonagricultural. and 

 large sections of it are uninhabited. 



These general agricultural characteristics of the state, derived 

 from the New Hampshire Experiment Station Circular 53, are men- 

 tioned here as a background to an understanding of the situation in 

 many rural communities. Such facts are suggestive of the numerous 

 poor and stranded rural towns of little wealth and of sparse popula- 

 tion. 



^ Type-of-Farming Areas in New Hampshire, Circular 53, New Hampshire Experiment Station. 



