4 U. OF X. H. AGR. EXPERIMENT STATION [Bulletin 227 



lit'vcd, every coiniuercial orcliard in New Hampshire. The seven 

 farms being studied in the rural electricity project are located in Graf- 

 ton, Merrimack, Strafford and Rockingham Counties, and were chosen 

 to represent various tyjies of farm enteri^'ises. 



It is particularly important that soil fertility studies should repre- 

 sent farm conditions in general throughout the State, and it is in this 

 work that local experimentation at Durham has been weakened in 

 the past because of soil conditions. The establishment of a series of 

 experimental plots on rejiresentative soil areas at Greenland and Bos- 

 cawen during the past year has been a marked step in advance and 

 should furnish us greatly needed information regarding the problem 

 of restoring worn-out hay lands. This is perhaps the most imi^ortant 

 problem facing New Hampshire agriculture today, and it is believed 

 that the investigation will be fimdamental to future progress. 



In similar fashion the studies of potato diseases have made it ad- 

 visable to conduct work in the northern part of the State as well as 

 in the southern counties. In tlie past few years observations in this 

 field have been made at a number of points, notably at Colebrook 

 and East Kingston. Studies of apple pests and diseases have been 

 made at New Boston, Contoocook and Greenland. Observations of 

 black flies have l^een extended over a long period by the station at 88 

 different points in the State, a large part of them in the northern 

 counties. Soil tests have been made covering a large number of 

 farms in all sections. In these and other ways the work of the Sta- 

 tion has been made increasingly free from geographical limitations 

 and more adequately rein-esents the agriculture of the state as a whole. 



The extension of the nutrition investigation to dairy cattle has been 

 marked by a signal advance in technique which has made possible a 

 more accurate study of basal metabolism than has perhaps ever before 

 been possible with the api)aratus available. Requests for details of 

 this work have already been received from a number of European 

 investigators. 



Definite figures on tlie costs of electrical power under farm condi- 

 tions are being secured as a result of our rural electrical project; and 

 from now on we may expect a series of fairly definite answers to 

 questions regarding the practicability of different types of equip- 

 ment. The work has attracted attention throughout the eastern States 

 through its cooperative association with the National Committee on 

 the Relation of Electricity to Agriculture. 



While these advances of the work during the past year have been 

 most gratifying, it should be pointed out that they have been made 

 possible almost entirely through the use of federal and other funds not of 

 state sources. The state funds re])resent only about 8% of the appro- 

 priations going into research work at the station during the past year; 

 whereas in the country as a whole the average state fund represented 

 approximately 70% of the official approi:)riations. Only five stations 

 in the country had state appropriations of less than $10,000; New 

 Hami)shirc's is only $4500. Since much of the nec(>ssary work of the 

 Station is of the nature of a special state service and cannot be pro])- 

 erly handled imder federal funds, the state needs of the station should 

 be more adequately met. In this connection. Dr. E. W. Allen, chief 



