4 UNIV. OF N. H. AGR. EXPERIMENT STATION [Bulletin 250 



completion of projects is essential to an adequate system of research; and 

 we are endeavoring to present the accomplishments of the Station not only 

 in comprehensive bulletins but also through press summaries and ab- 

 stracts in various journals. 



Bulletins issued during the year were as follows: 



Bulletin 235— Results of Seed Tests, 1928. 



" 2.36 — Inspection of Commercial Feeding Stuffs, 1928. 



" 237 — -Inspection of Commercial Fertilizers, 1928. 



" 238— Agricultural Experiments, 1928. 



" 239 — Potato Production Costs in New Hampshire. 



" 240 — Simplified Technique and Apparatus for Measuring Energy Require- 

 ments of Cattle. 



" 241 — -White Mountain Hotel Demand for Vegetables and Poultry Products. 



" 242 — The Energy and the Protein Content of Foods Regularly Eaten in a 

 College Community. 



" 243 — Mosquitoes in New Hampshire. 



" 244 — Electric Household Refrigeration. 

 Circular 29 — Certification of Poultry. 

 Technical Bulletin 38 — -Viscosity in Ice Cream Mixes. 



POTATO PRODUCTION COSTS 



Ability to produce potatoes as efficiently as competing areas, nearness 

 to markets, and deficient production within the state point to an oppor- 

 tunity for many New Hampshire farmers to produce potatoes profitably, 

 M. F. Abell summarizes a two-year study of production costs. The sur- 

 vey was made on 200 farms which raised more than 10 per cent of the 

 potatoes produced in the state. Twelve growers kept detailed labor 

 records in 1927. 



It is becoming more and more difficult to justify hand methods. Where 

 the area is small, machinery is too expensive. Only where family labor 

 cannot otherwise be employed, and the yields obtained are exceptionally 

 high, may hand methods be profitable. Where potato machinery is used, 

 savings in labor of three to five days an acre are possible. Areas as small 

 as 3.8 acres proved large enough to handle potato machinery economically. 

 The area in potatoes is one of the most important factors influencing pro- 

 duction costs. As the acreage increases, production costs decrease, and 

 high yields are most often associated with the larger areas. 



In New Hampshire, for the farms surveyed, the labor requirements on 

 the average are about 15 per cent higher than in Aroostook County, 

 Maine. Seed costs for similar quantities are higher. Fertilizer costs are 

 lower because much manure is used in rotation on our dairy farms. On 

 the other hand many New Hampshire growers have a transportation ad- 

 vantage of 39 cents a hundredweight. Considering the marketing advan- 

 tage New Hampshire growers have a more favorable position in a com- 

 parison of costs, and the crop may be grown as a supplement to the dairy 

 enterprise, as it most often and properly is, while in Aroostook County the 

 farmers are not so favored. 



The potato crop of the state is raised largely on the less favorable soils. 

 There is still in New Hampshire a large area best suited to potatoes, par- 

 ticularly in the north. In many cases the potato enterprise seems to be 

 incidental to the dairy business, and therefore a large proportion of the 

 best soils are still available. In the southern counties the farmers are 

 raising potatoes more nearly as a main enterprise, for only on the better 

 soils can they compete in yields with the more favored regions of the north. 



