8 University of New Hampshire [Bulletin 290 



of the town officials to cooperate in every way in the assessment and col- 

 lection of taxes with the single purpose in mind of bringing into the town 

 the revenue that was justly due and, at the same time, making payments 

 as easy as possible for the taxpayer, especially if through some unfortunate 

 circumstance he became a delinquent. 



Relative Agricultural Importance of Counties 



The relative agricultural importance of the area surveyed with respect 

 to number of farms, land area in farms and the amount of taxes paid on all 

 farm property, including both real and personal, is shown in Table 1, by 

 counties. Towns in the three counties of Grafton, Hillsborough, and Mer- 

 rimack comprise 43 per cent of all the farms, 45 per cent of the land area 

 in farms and receive 43 per cent of all the taxes paid by the farmers in the 

 216 towns. Belknap, Carroll, and Strafford Counties are of much less 

 importance agriculturally, containing only 20 per cent of the farms — less 

 than one-half of the former three counties. The 216 towns surveyed, rep- 

 resenting 92 per cent of all the towns in the State, contain 91 per cent of all 

 the farms, 94 per cent of the land area and collect 91 per cent of all the prop- 

 erty taxes paid by New Hampshire farmers. 



These census data explain the relative agricultural importance of the 

 areas surveyed and in general account for some of the variations in delin- 

 quency and tax sales, but for obvious reasons should be applied cautiously 

 when used as a base for drawing conclusions from subsequent summaries. 



Table 1. The total number of farms, all land in farms and taxes on all farm property, 

 for 216 towns included in this survey, by counties; from the 1930 census. 



All land Taxes on all 



County Number in farms farm property 



of farms (acres) (dollars) 



Belknap 668 



Carroll 854 



Cheshire 934 



Coos 1,047 



Grafton 1,786 



Hillsboro 1,699 



Merrimack 1,599 



Rockingham 1,365 



Strafford 820 



Sullivan 1,166 



216 towns 11,938 



State total 13,090 



Tax Delinquency 



It has previously been explained that, with the exception of Merrimack 

 and Sullivan Counties, tax delinquency pertains to those properties adver- 

 tised for sale and reported to the Coimty Register of Deeds. A brief exami- 

 nation of the individual schedules reveals the nature of this delinquency as 

 it relates to the taxpayer. Most of these property owners were delinquent 



