AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS— 1929 



REPORT OF THE NEW HAMPSHIRE AGRICULTURAL 

 EXPERIMENT STATION 



J. C. Kendall, Director 



In a world which makes silk stockings out of trees, paper out of corn- 

 stalks and fertilizer out of the air, the importance of agricultural research 

 is obvious. The more we become industrialized, the more we depend 

 upon the trained investigator. 



Not only is this true of the sciences which directly affect agricultural 

 production. Events move more and more swiftly in the field of eco- 

 nomics. Questions of crop margins, of price trends, of land values, of 

 consumer demand, of financial tendencies and of cooperative organization 

 are in the air. There are many problems here of vital importance to the 

 agriculture of each region. The formation of the Federal Farm Board 

 with the tendency to centralize marketing power is a case in point. An 

 alert program of research in agricultural economics is bound to be in- 

 creasingly necessary; and the development, which has been made possible 

 by the Purnell Fund, has come none too soon. 



A broadening of the Station's work to cover more adequately the 

 regional problems of the state is evident, not only in the economic inves- 

 tigations, but also in the soil plots located in five series on representative 

 fields in Rockingham, Merrimack, Sullivan and Coos counties. The 

 importance of a more definite program of research from a state standpoint 

 is clear, and the demands for state service work are increasing in all 

 branches of the industry. 



A serious loss to all agricultural experiment stations has been felt by the 

 sudden death in November, 1929, of Dr. E. W. Allen, Chief of the Office of 

 Experiment Stations of the United States Department of Agriculture. 

 For 14 years in this position his advice in regard to all details of Station 

 procedure has been constantly helpful. A most competent and construc- 

 tive critic, a kind and thoughtful and thoroughly trained executive, he has 

 exerted a profound influence on the projects of this Station as well as those 

 of other states. 



In the resident staff there have been few changes during the year. 

 Dr. C. L. Martin was appointed Station veterinarian; Dr. C. A. Bottorff, 

 poultry pathologist; M. A. Campbell, certification inspector of poultry; 

 H. C. Moore, assistant dairyman; L. W. Glover and W. A. Westgate, re- 

 search assistants in entomology; Nicholas Colovos and Maurice Bickford, 

 assistants in animal nutrition; H. L. Murray, R. B. Dearborn, and C. E. 

 Walker, graduate assistants; L. J. Higgins, assistant agronomist, and 

 F. D. Reed, assistant in agricultural economics. S. R. Shimer was 

 granted a year's leave of absence for study, and his position as assistant 

 chemist has been temporarily filled by A. D. Robinson. E. M. Rowalt 

 has been appointed editorial assistant, and W. W. Shirley librarian. 



Already the influence of the Purnell Fund has begun to be felt in the in- 

 creased number of pubUcations. Prompt report in public form upon the 



