December, 1931] Dairy Farming in Grafton County 



9 



excellent soil, mostly to be classifiecl as Merrimac fine sandy loam. Ad- 

 jacent to the present river bed, the overflow lands are made up of 

 recent alluvium. All these river-lain soils are productive and easily 

 worked, and are usually distributed in sufticiently large areas of level 

 topography to make excellent fields for dairy farming. They will not 

 support lime-loving plants like alfalfa, however, without liming. 



The illustration on page 11 shows an area of the better alluvial soil 

 rather typically distributed along the river, in width about sufficient 

 for one or two farms and almost immediately giving way to rolling, 

 rocky, or hilly topography. Provided with some of this intervale land 

 for tillage, the farmer can make good use of the nearby hills for past- 

 ure and water supply, and for Avood and lumber. 



Climate 



Climatological data for the region were taken from two stations, one 

 at Bethlehem, in the northern end of the county, and one at Hanover, 

 in the southern part. The average mean temperatures for the two sta- 

 tions during the five growing months of May, June, July, August, and 

 September are reported as approximately 54, 62, 67, 65, and 57, F. re- 

 spectively, (Table 2). These figures are based on records covering 

 twenty-one years at the northern station and seventy-one years at 

 Hanover. For the season of 1929, the temperatures were 54, 64, 66, 62, 

 and 60 for the corresponding months and stations, indicating that in 

 this respect the year studied was reasonably normal. 



Table 2 — Mean temperatures for selected months of 1929-30 compared to the 

 normal as given by stations at Bethlehem and Hanover, Grafton County, 

 New Hampshire* 



logical Data 



United States Department of Agriculture, Weather Bureau, 

 New England Section, Vols. XLI. XLII. 



Climato- 



