28 N. H. Agricultural Experiment Station [Bulletin 279 



cleaning houses were managed when orchard work was slack. Neither en- 

 terprise was neglected. 



This operator had found in previous years that the raising of pullets 

 interfered greatly with early spring orchard work, especially spraying. 

 Consequently, he planned to purchase pullets in the fall. He states that 

 when his main orchard was first set out, the raising of pullets did not 

 cause difficulty and that the poultry enterprise helped to carry the expense 

 of growing the young orchard to the bearing stage. The use of early 

 hatched chicks will lessen the conflict between orchard and poultry. From 

 the experience of this one farm it appears that the keeping of chickens on 

 a limited scale may be made a favorable supplementary enterprise pro- 

 vided the operator is skilled in poultry husbandry. 



Most orchardists can conveniently fit one or more supplementary en- 

 terprises into the orchard program. Since most of these possible crops 

 must be marketed locally, their inclusion on any particular fruit farm 

 should be after carefully considering the outlets. Many orchard farms 

 are located some distance from markets, and frequently, as was the case 

 on even the most highly diversified farms in this study, have little land 

 well suited for cash crops. 



On several of the small farms operated by older men, the slack season 

 in winter was used to good advantage by making trips to visit relatives 

 and by several months of semi-leisure. 



In starting a new orchard enterprise, it would be well to consider leav- 

 ing some good land near buildings for the growing of cash crops. 



DISTRIBUTION OF TIME ON MISCELLANEOUS TASKS 



Not all the available time is employed directly on income-producing 

 crops or stock. There are many miscellaneous tasks that require atten- 

 tion. Buildings, fences and roads need to be maintained. Old equipment is 

 cared for, new equipment is studied, purchased and assembled. The merits 

 of various seeds, fertilizers and spray material are discussed with visiting 

 salesmen, purchases considered and orders made out. Partridge and deer 

 damage receive attention and educational meetings are attended. In win- 

 ter, snow may need to be shoveled. In summer, flower gardens may be 

 spaded for the housewife, or lawns mowed. The collection of accounts 

 may require special trips, and the bank must be visited to make deposits, 

 or to arrange for credits. Horses must be cared for. Accounts are kept. 



On some of the farms the miscellaneous items could not be secured very 

 accurately. This was especially true in the case of the older men, who 

 were, in fact, on a part-time retirement basis. The time spent "tinkering 

 around" had to be largely ignored. For this reason data on miscellaneous 

 time is reported in Table 7 for only seven farms. On the average, 18 per 

 cent of the total working time on these farms was spent on tasks such as 

 those enumerated above. Farm 2 was lowest with 15 per cent, and Farm 

 6 was highest with 23 per cent. 



Nearly three per cent of the total time reported, or about one-eighth 

 of the miscellaneous time, was spent on household or personal matters. 

 This amounts to about 287 hours per farm annually, and includes work 

 on wood for home use, on making things for the home, on lawns, and on 

 flower beds in so far as they took the men from the farm work. It does 



