PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS, 



1926 



ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE NEW HAMPSHIRE 

 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION 



The broadening out of research work into the field of agricultural 

 economics has perhaps been the outstanding feature of the New 

 Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station's first year of additional 

 help from the Purnell Fund. This ai^propriation, made available by 

 act of Congress in 1925, has for the first time made it possible for 

 the Station to investigate such problems as the economic balance 

 between production and consumi)tion of food stuffs grown in the 

 State, the trends of i^'oduction. the costs of growing various crops 

 under New Hami)siiire conditions, and the important marketing prob- 

 lems which during recent years have been of more and more concern 

 to people interested in the agricultural welfare of the State. 



As a ground work for investigation of this type it was considered 

 advisable to concentrate during the past year on the completion of an 

 economic survey which we believe has the distinction of being the 

 first state-wide survey of its kind that has been made in this country. 

 The study reached into every section of New Hampshire, securing 

 records from practically every retail store as well as a large per cent 

 of the hotels and camjis. The results have already been set forth in 

 Station Bulletin No. 222, "Can New Hampshire Produce More of 

 "What She Eats?" The study has raised several interesting questions; 

 for example, it was found that over 300.000 bushels of potatoes, 

 nearly half of those marketed in the state, are shipped in during the 

 competing season when local grown ]){)tatoes could be sold. AVhether 

 certain types of farms cannot efficiently i)roduce this crop by the use 

 of improved methods in competition with outside areas, is one of the 

 questions which we are now pursuing. Another important problem 

 raised by the study deals with the possibility of producing poultry 

 and vegetables for the White Mountain hotel trade. With many 

 crops it was surprising to find how nearly the demand is at present 

 supplied by locally grown products. The importance of knowing the 

 facts regarding these questions is obvious. It is only by patient re- 

 search that a true picture of the situation as regards production and 

 marketing is possible. 



During recent years it has been possible for the Station to carry on 

 more of its investigations throughout the state as a whole. So much 

 of the research work has been of necessity conducted at headquarters 

 in Durham that many people have perhaps not realized the state-wide 

 significance of the work; but there is now a noticeable increase in the 

 amount of territory over which it spreads. The investigators conduct- 

 ing tlie economic survey went into most of even the small towns in 

 the State. The study of the commercial apple industry required per- 

 sonal visits to over 800 orchards in 140 towns, including, it is be- 



