AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN 

 NEW HAMPSHIRE 



Annual Report of the Director of the New Hampshire 

 Agricultural Experiment Station for the Year 1931 



J. C. KENDALL, Director 



In times such as these every public agency must feel more keenly than 

 ever the duty to fulfill its public trust : to return to the general good a 

 greater sum in ultimate values than it has taken out. Such return is 

 often difficult to measure accurately, especially in the research field, 

 where we must often grope and fail. But it is only through constant 

 experimentation that agriculture has advanced to its present levels, 

 and only by the same means can we continue to progress. 



If public research seems costly, one may well consider how much more 

 expensive and frequently impossible is research on the part of the in- 

 dividual farmer. And if public research seems inconclusive at times, 

 it must be remembered that the observations of lone and untrained men 

 would be hopelessly so. Civilization is committed to the laboratory 

 and to trained research ; and the pathway ahead out of economic de- 

 pression would only be the darker if they were withdrawn. 



The past year has seen several important projects to a stage where 

 conclusions could be drawn; among them, our economic fruit farm 

 studies, the survey of Grafton County dairy farms, Boston milk con- 

 sumption study, contact-insecticide project, study of root growth of 

 white pine, studies in human nutrition, land utilization study, spray 

 residues project, head lettuce investigation, etc. The following pages 

 will give some details as to the significant results of the year. 



In the meantime it has been possible to develop several important 

 new studies. ' The dairy situation in New England is acute, and one 

 of the pivotal questions is the relative cost of Grade A as compared with 

 Grade B milk. We are conducting a study of the practices and fac- 

 tors affecting marketing costs and quality of product. Of equal" im- 

 portance to the dairy industry should be a series of efficiency studies in 

 the Connecticut Valley, dealing with dairy farm organization and pro- 

 duction practices. With the completion of these projects, as well as of 

 the Grafton County survey, previously noted, the Experiment Station 

 should be in a position to give new counsel that will be welcome to 

 many dairymen throughout the state. 



Other new investigations deal with coccidiosis of chickens, which has 

 proved one of the most menacing of poultry diseases during recent 

 years ; and further development of the land utilization question ; a be- 

 ginning of definite Record of Performance work for poultry breeders 

 was also made. 



The staff suffered a real loss during the year in the death of Philip 

 R. Lowry, assistant entomologist, who had been with us for ten years 

 and who died suddenly April 29 while engaged in his laboratory work. 



