Agricultural Research in 

 New Hampshire 



Annual Report of the Director of the New Hampshire 

 Agricuhural Experiment Station for the Year 



1934 



J. C. KENDALL, Director 



With a considerable body of knowledge of agricultural problems behind 

 us, each decade still develops new questions which press for solution. The 

 past few years have been a time of trial for the farmers of the state. The 

 economic situation seems to have national and international implications — a 

 sort of universal wave length which reaches to the last farm. 



The increased cost of grains, for example, has raised questions as to the 

 possibility of raising more of our own feed stuffs. The influx of many new 

 part-time and subsistence operators has resulted in specialized questions as 

 to effective procedure for this new clientele. Meanwhile, new processes, new 

 trends in the world at large are constantly reshaping the demand for our 

 farm products. 



It is most fortunate that we have been able to carry on economic investi- 

 gations during the past ten years. These studies have helped greatly to throw 

 light on the unwieldy questions of marketing and economic production. The 

 increasing importance of engineering problems has also been evident, and 

 the need for much more work in this field is clear. 



The various fields of knowledge are becoming so specialized that there 

 is more need than ever for a cooperative attack on many problems. We are 

 finding it more and more advisable to get the combined viewpoints of spe- 

 cialists in different fields, and an increasing nuinber of our research projects 

 are now being prosecuted on a cooperative basis between different depart- 

 ments. There are similar opportunities between the Experiment Stations 

 of the different states in this region. The northeastern Station directors 

 have been cooperating in an attempt to coordinate research and to combine 

 forces where feasible; and regional conferences of various specialists are 

 proving of more and more importance. 



\Ve are happy to announce that during the past year our chemical tech- 

 nique has been perfected for the determination of plant nutrients in soils. 

 It is now possible to learn more about state soil samples than ever before, 

 and to give more definite recommendations as to fertilizer treatment and soil 

 management. Requests for this service are already increasing rapidly and 

 are threatening to swamp our available facilities. 



The soil fertility studies of the last few years are already indicating 

 important, facts as to soil management, and we now expect, through the co- 

 operation of the Bureau of Soils of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, to begin next spring the long needed reconnaissance soil survey of 

 the state. With the facts from this survey, with our improved technique for 



