12 N. H. Agr. Experiment Station [Bulletin 260 



The major reason for these discrepancies in farm prices is to be 

 found in the increased costs of handling and transporting farm prod- 

 ucts from the place of production to the consumer. All through these 

 years, costs of distribution in the United States have been practically 

 twice as high as before the War.^ With a given supply of goods, the 

 farmer gets the retail price minus the costs of delivering the product. 

 Because of nearby markets, this situation is much less serious for New 

 Hampshire farmers than for the majority of producers in the United 

 States who happen to be less strategically located. 



For the year 1929, grain ])rices had declined somewhat and milk 

 prices in this region were higher than for anj' year since 1920. Farm 

 wages for the State were also reported somewhat higher, but probably 

 not enough to more than offset the saving in grain (Table 4). Probably 

 the period for which these records Avere taken represented the most 

 successful year experienced by this group of farmers since 1920. 



* Prices furnished hy the New England Milk Producers' Association, Bos- 

 ton, Mass. W. H. Bronson, Statistician. 

 ** Dairy ration made up of nine different o-rain products, Farm Economics, 

 June, 1931, p. 1548, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 

 *** United States Department of Agriculture Yearbooks for the years desig- 

 nated. 



From 1929 to July, 1931, there Avas a general decline of prices for 

 dairy products in the United States to a point 15 per cent below the 

 pre-war average. This general decline in prices of dairy products to- 

 gether with larger supplies of milk in the Boston market, a decreased 

 demand and the lack of a more unified sales organization for northern 

 New England milk, were all reflected in the price returned to New 

 Hampshire farmers for milk. The accompanying decline in dairy cat- 

 tle prices promised to make the combined effect on farm incomes 

 serious. 



THE FARMS STUDIED 



Following the Civil War, the exploitation of the Middle West offered 

 advantages in the ownershi]) and development of farm lands which 

 attracted many pcojjle from the older rural districts of the East. More 

 recently, real or assumed advantages offered by the city have proved 



