Agricultural Research in New Hampshire 19 



in boxes once competition is fully under way and many makes are readily 

 available. 



Home Freezers vs. Lockers. Meats make up a large part of the 

 volume of processing done by locker plants, and operators expect to hold 

 most of this business even though home lockers are built or purchased. 

 But the home freezer is ideal for small lots of fruits and vegetables which 

 come from the home garden throughout the season. 



Home box owners compared favorably with the upper one-fifth of 

 the locker holders at several plants with respect to amounts of food proc- 

 essed, but they processed about five times as much of fruits and vege- 

 tables. They also had a much greater variety. While home box owners 

 may be "freezing enthusiasts" the convenience factor was an important 

 one in fruit and vegetable processing. Home freezer storage will play 

 an important part in increasing the amount and variety of frozen foods 

 used on the farm table. The cost of home freezer space still greatly ex- 

 ceeds that of locker space. Nevertheless, large numbers of people will 

 purchase home zero storage when the costs of such storage decrease, as 

 seems probable. 



Freezer Locker Holders. Data on 5,295 locker holders in 20 plants 

 show patronage consisting of 52 per cent farmers or part-time farmers, 

 and 48 per cent non-farmers. More detailed data on 3,892 locker hold- 

 ers in 14 plants show 39 per cent farmers, 14 per cent part-time farmers, 

 and 47 per cent non-farmers. 



Locker Plant Gross Income. Data from four locker plants showed 

 gross income as follows: 



Lockers and storage 37% 



Processing 30% 



Frozen food sales 16% 



Meat, supplies, and miscellaneous 17% 



Many plants are putting in display cases and adding to the variety 

 of foods sold. Frozen food and meat sales may increase in the period 

 ahead. 



L. A. Dougherty 



CROPS 



Potato Experiments in Northern New Hampshire 



Potatoes were grown on Coffin field No. 2 at Colebrook during 1945 

 and are produced again this year under the following treatments: with 

 one ton of 5-10-10 fertilizer as a standard; 10 tons manure, 1,000 pounds 

 ground limestone; 500, 1,000 and 2,000 pounds of gypsum, magnesium; 

 in two rates, five and 20 pounds of borax per acre; and with the sulphate 

 of potash substituted for the chloride. Since yield data are available for 

 only one year they are not presented here. 



Potatoes grown under the various treatments were subjected to the 

 specific gravity test for quality. Tubers grown with the sulphate instead 

 of muriate of potash proved to have a slightly higher quality rating than 



