8 N. H. Agri. Experiment Station [Bulletin 284 



with the advertisement and sale of delinquent properties, affect the com- 

 parableness of the data assembled for this project. 



The majority of properties advertised or sold were the same year after 

 year. The owners redeemed them, only to repeat the same routine by failing 

 to pay the subsequent levy before being advertised again. The real index of 

 distress, therefore, lies, not so much in the amount of delinquencies as in 

 the number of new names on the lists. The latter represent increased de- 

 linquencies. 



The total value of rural real estate tax delinquency, as advertised for 

 sale and reported to the County Register of Deeds, in all counties except 

 Merrimack and Sullivan, increased from $81,596 in 1928 to $176,483 in 

 1931, the peak year, mounting at the rate of nearly $32,000 per year. This 

 represents an increase of 1 16 per cent in the amount of delinquent taxes, 92 

 per cent in the number of properties and 120 per cent in acreage. The great- 

 est increase for any one year was for the 1931 levy when the amount of 

 delinquent taxes increased 61 per cent over 1930. There was a decline in 

 1932 from 1931, due more to a lower average tax rate than to fewer proper- 

 ties. Delinquency was apparently most severe in Coos, Grafton, Rocking- 

 ham, and Belknap Counties. Had the entire State been surveyed on the 

 same basis, tax advertisements for the 1932 levy would have approximated 

 260,000 acres of rural lands and involved $180,000 of tax money. 



More than three-fourths of the advertised properties were classed as 

 farm land with buildings and eight per cent as forest lands. The former 

 •claSs comprised 79 per cent of the delinquent land area and 89 per cent of 

 the total assessed value of all delinquent properties. 



Sixty-seven per cent of the advertisements for the 1931 levy went to 

 sale in 1932 as compared with about 56 per cent for other years, further 

 distinguishing the 1931 levy as being especially burdensome. The value of 

 tax sales for all counties in 1932 was 232 per cent of that in 1929. This in- 

 dicates that tax sales were increasing proportionately faster than tax adver- 

 tisements and thus a smaller percentage of notices were being discharged 

 before sale. Tax sales in the State as a whole, no doubt, exceeded 172,000 

 acres of rural lands and represented nearly $135,000 in value in 1932. 



In 53 towns in 1933 there was a total of 483 farm real estate transfers in- 

 volving 32,821 acres of land compared with 563 transfers or 34,232 acres 

 in 1929. However, only 89 per cent of the 1933 transfers were voluntary 

 compared with 99 i)er cent of those of 1929. {H. C. Grinncll — Purnell 

 Fund in Co-operation ivith F.E.R.A.) 



Spray Management Studies 



Spray records kept by 50 apple growers seem to indicate that it is good 

 insurance to a])ply as many s])rays as will warrant a good clean crop of fruit. 

 One (jf the best cr()])s in the state and the cleanest crop ever produced in this 

 particular orchard showed this past year a total cost of $268.79 for spray 

 and dust material to i)rotect the crop of 8,250 bushels, or an average cost of 

 3.26 cents per bushel. The most expensive spray application came to only 

 .6 of a cent per bushel. 



The question of the number of cover sprays is frequently raised. 



In considering any one spray in most orchards the cost of materials rep- 

 resents the greater part of the actual out-of-pocket expense. The spray 



