14 N. H. Age. Experiment Station [Bulletin 260 



In general, there is much similarity in the two distributions. A 

 slig-htly larger proportion of the New Hampshire farmers are found 

 in the oldest group, but they are offset by a larger proportion in the 

 youngest group. The average age of all operators in the New York 

 area was 50 years. The New Hampshire group, with an average of 49 

 years, compares favorably. The average age of 428 operators in the 

 Suneook Valley and Grafton areas in 1911 was 51 years.- 



Size of Family 



The average number of individuals per household on the farms is 

 given in Table 6. The resident adults, which included the operator and 

 his wife and often members of an older generation, averaged practic- 

 ally 2.5 persons per farm. Children up to 18 years of age constituted 

 1.64 persons. Altogether the families comprised 4.57 persons per farm. 

 In Livingston County, New York, the average number per household 

 was 4.64 and hired men boarded represented .40, but there were more 

 hired men with families who lived in a separate house provided by the 

 farm for that purpose.^ 



Table 6 — Members of operators'' houseJwId, JflS farms* 



Average adults • • 2.49 



Children from 10 to 18 years .84 



Children under 10 years .80 



Hired men, boarded .44 



Total -l-o? 



* Information lacking for one farm. 



Acreages 



The 414 farms included in the survey had an average of 233 acres. 

 The distribution of this acreage is compared with Livingston County 

 in Table 7. The New Hampshire farms had 52 acres of crops and 95 

 in open pasture, or its equivalent. The New York farms had almost 

 twice as much crop land, 93 acres, and somewhat less than half as 

 much pasture, 47 acres. Much of the larger size of the Grafton hold- 

 ings was due to woodland. Mainly because of physiographic conditions 

 involving rock outcrop and hills, more territory has been left in per- 

 manent pasture and Avoods in the New Hampshire area. In the New 

 York area, 10.7 acres of the pasture were rotated; in New Ilampsliire 

 6.2 acres of pasture were considered tillable, but were not so used. 



Because of rotation and the presence of more fertile and less rocky 

 soils, Livingston County had better pastures. The acres of pasture per 

 cow were 3.9 as compared to nearly 6 acres in Grafton County. Farm- 

 ers in the latter section obtained an additional estimated value of 

 $24.63 per farm from pasturing hay fields, after harvest. 



Crops 



Of the total 96,574 acres in these 414 farms, 21,028 acres, or 21.8 

 per cent, were in crops. This agrees with the i)roportion of crop land 

 reported for the county as a whole as computed from the 1930 census. 



