ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 



OF THE NEW HAMPSHIRE AGRICULTURAL 



EXPERIMENT STATION FOR THE YEAR 1932 



J. C. KENDALL, Director 



In a year when the economics of every question has required the 

 keenest study, agriculture is fortunate to have had some background 

 of research through which to view its many problems. 



New Hampshire farmers have had their share of those problems. 

 With falling milk markets, drought and short hay crop, low prices 

 for potatoes, gluts on eggs and broilers, credit difficulties, depressed 

 buying power of consumers, the increased tax burden due to industrial 

 unemployment, to say nothing of the regular run of insect and disease 

 troubles, it has not been an easy year. The advice of the Experiment 

 Station staff has been sought in more varied ways probably than ever 

 before in the history of the institution; and it has been most impor- 

 tant that such advice should be built on a sound basis of ascer- 

 tained facts. 



Early in the spring of 1932 groups of representative farm leaders 

 from each county were in\'ited to the university to consider in detail 

 both the research and extension programs in poultry, potatoes and 

 dairying. These conferences were meant to serve as a check of prac- 

 tical farm experience against the program of the Station and the Ex- 

 tension Service. There was opportunity for friendly discussion, for 

 questions and answers and for deliberative action. The groups not 

 only approved the plans now in progress; they sought eagerly for 

 further light on other problems. Noticeable in the discussions was the 

 fact that the economic phases received practically as much attention 

 as the production phases. This would have been impossible ten years 

 ago before the passage of the Purnell Act, which made federal funds 

 for economic investigations first available. 



The economic studies in dairying, poidtry, fmit and potatoes have 

 already provided important data on which to base recommendations, 

 and have opened up new avenues of approach. Similarly, the soil 

 fertility stuclies conducted in representative sections have made possi- 

 ble more specific and detailed counsel on roughage production. Farmers 

 who followed the Station's advice as to annual legimies this year were 

 in a much better position to face the hay shortage which prevailed in 

 the southern part of the state. 



The year saw the completion of the studies in poultry economics, 

 wholesale milk farms, consumption of milk, head lettuce production 

 and marketing and in the spray studies wdth Burgundy mixtures. The 

 five-year investigation of uses of electricity on representative farms, 

 conducted in cooperation with the State Committee on the Relation of 

 Electricity to Agriculture, was also completed, and the results have 

 been brought down to date in final publication. 



