14 N. H. Agric. Experiment Station [Bui. 270 



other words, the use of this town for recreation has made it possible 

 to shift without serious economic wrenches from an extensive, self- 

 sustained unit type of fanning to the modern method of using only the 

 smoother lands for tillage and pasture. The summer people have spent 

 as high as $30,000 on their homes, but the average is $2,000 with an 

 additional $360 per family which they spend in the town each year 

 for milk, eggs, etc. {State Fund) 



Electrical Farm Load Proves Desirable 



Six years' figiu'es on the use of electricity on seven experimental 

 farms in the state, gathered in cooperation with the National and New 

 England Committees on the Relation of Electricity to Agriculture, 

 were reported by W. T. Ackemian in Bulletin 266 during the year. 



The analysis of total load developed by all the experimental farms 

 shows 31.2% to be very desirable, 48.3% desirable and 20.5% unde- 

 sirable in the effect on the power factor of central stations. 



The better quality of electric load on farms, i. e., developing the 

 greatest kw.-hr. use in mid-summer, is particularly influenced by such 

 factors as: a greater balance of use on the farm than in the home; 

 the use made of refrigeration in the house and for milk and other prod- 

 ucts; the use of the combination range, booster type water heaters 

 and portable motors. This type of equipment accounted for 31.2% 

 of the total current used over the five-year period. {Miscellaneous 

 Income) 



Dry Storage of Milk Proving Favorable 



The data accumulated from continued work on the handling and 

 conditioning of milk for market, point still more distinctly to the super- 

 iority of the dry storage method (pre-cooling with brine and storing 

 in a dry storage) as compared to the wet tanlc method (hot milk im- 

 mersed in refrigerated water in cans), reports W. T. Ackerman. 



The prevailing low price of milk and the proposed increased strin- 

 gency of the Boston market milk regulations (cooled to SO'' within 

 two hours time) place dairy farmers employing the wet tank method 

 ir a precarious position. 



Results from experiments on some 30 practical farms using wet 

 tanks show a great variety of results, but particularly that unless 

 precoolers, water circulators, agitators or other supplementary equip- 

 ment are used, the wet tank method is slow and only in exceptional 

 cases could hot milk be cooled in the can to 50° in two hours time, 

 (temperature average of entire can). Slow rate of cold transfer, vari- 

 ation in water levels on the cans, lack of variable controls to adjust 

 for changing weather conditions and the overloading of equipment are 

 iuiportant causes of difficulty. 



Various methods, whereby the speed of action of the wet tank method 

 may be increased through the use of precoolers and water agitators, 

 are being investigated. {Purnell Fund) 



Yields Not Affected by Pruning Methods 



Three different methods of pruning apple trees show no differences 

 in yield or trunk growth after 14 years, G. F. Potter reports. There 



