June, 1926] 



CAN WE PRODUCE MORE OF WHAT ^ E EAT? 



summarized to study when the different commodities were purchased. 

 Daily records of purchases were also obtained from retail stores, in 

 Nashua, Concord, and Littleton and wholesale companies in Manchester 

 and Portsmouth. These records were then tabulated by weeks and 

 plotted on graph paper. These graphs showed the trend of purchases 

 from other than farmers verj^ clearly for most products, but the weekly 

 purchases were irregular since individual stores often buy sufficient sup- 

 plies of many farm products to last more than a week. From the data 

 obtained it seemed evident that if actual weekly records could be 

 obtained from all stores, the graph would resemble a smooth curve. A 

 smooth curve was therefore fitted to these data with an area inside the 

 curve equal to the actual record of purchases. Weekly percentages of 

 total yearly purchases from other than farmers were then obtained for 

 these trend figures. These weekly percentages were then multiplied times 

 the total purchases from other than farmers as obtained from retail stores. 

 This method, it is believed, should give a close approximation of the sea- 

 sonal distribution; but it should not be taken as an accurate record of 

 weekly purchases. 



Seasonal Distribution of strawberry purchases from Other 

 Than local farmers, by Several new Hampshire stores 



AND wholesale COMPANIES. 1925 



PER CENT OF 



TOTAL YEARLY 



PURCHASES 



25 



20 



10 



" \ . '•' 



Nut Brown Grocery, Nashua i 

 .» 



Opening 



harvesi 



dafe in 



Southern 



N.M. 



I3ZS 



2 9 '6 £3 ;C e 13 20 27 6 13 20 27 3 10 17 24 



JAN FEB, MAR. APR 



8 IS 22 2S E i2 I9 26 



MAY JUNE 



»u»i»u c« •SK icooexws-uscr" *g« 



Figure 2 — Curves such as this, representing actual purchases of commodities by 

 certain stores, were used to estimate the time of shipping in products. 



Railroad Records 



The sources of these food products purchased outside the state were 

 determined by analyzing the railroad freight records at Berlin, Laconia, 

 Concord, Manchester, Nashua, Dover and Keene. These are the princi- 

 pal wholesale centers in the state, and the source of receipts coming into 

 these cities should represent very closely the source of receipts for the 

 entire state. The freight shipments were also used to check on the total 

 purchases of imports in the case of a few commodities. 



