4 N. H. Agki. Experiment Station [Bui. 296 



present and potential rural electric lines with projected loads, the ac- 

 complishment of a cooperative survey with other state and federal 

 agencies, have provided the basis for intelligent electric planning. 



For eighteen years we have been most fortunate in having the close 

 cooperation of Dr. Francis G. Benedict, director of the Nutrition Lab- 

 oratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washing-ton, in our studies of 

 animal nutrition. Dr. Benedict's long experience in the field of human 

 nutrition has been an invaluable asset in guiding and interpreting these 

 studies. He has now reached the age of retirement, and it is with deep 

 regret that our Station will lose his friendly collaboration and his 

 scientific counsel, which has won international respect. Features of the 

 metabolism research were made a part of the exhibit of the Carnegie 

 Institution at its annual meeting in Washington and attracted wide 

 attention. 



Pullorum tests, already the highest in proportion to hen population 

 among the states, jumped 55 per cent higher last year, following the 

 new cooperative arrangement with the State Department of Agriculture. 

 The record of samples reached 370,176 — a third of the entire number of 

 hens in the state. 



A study of forest growth measurements has been developed north of 

 the White Mountains in cooperation with the U. S. Forest Service, the 

 Northeastern Forestry Experiment Station, and the State Forestry De- 

 partments of New Hampshire and Vermont. The investigation grows 

 out of a need for standards of procedure to guide the newly fomied 

 cooperative of this region in periodic cutting and marketing of spruce 

 and hardwoods on a sustained yield basis. A 10% cruise of the 140,000 

 acres of fami woodland in the area is well under way. 



An important step was taken in the spring of 1936 when all the agri- 

 cultural experiment stations of New England entered into a revised 

 agreement with the U. S. Bureau of Agricultural Economics making 

 possible a full time regional agent and providing for planning and car- 

 rying out regional programs of research in marketing and agricultural 

 economics. As its first task under the new agreement the council is 

 w^orking on a research program concerning the marketing of dairy prod- 

 ucts in New England. The general purpose of the study is to discover \i 

 possible improvements in marketing methods, practices and facilities 

 and in methods of public control over milk marketing. 



Few changes have taken place in personnel during the past year. 

 E. H. Rinear, assistant in marketing research, resigned in February, 

 going to the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station; and his place 

 has been taken by Alan G. MacLeod. E. J. Rasmussen, assistant in 

 Horticulture, left in the spring to take up similar work at the Michigan 

 Station, and W. W. Smith has been appointed in his place. W. R. Gil- 

 lette and J. Naghski have been appointed graduate assistants in botany; 

 Miss Elinor Robison and Samuel Stevens, poultry laboratory techni- 

 cians, the latter replacing R. C. Ham, who resigned in November. 



H. C. Woodworth, agricultural economist, was on leave of absence, 

 taking charge of the land use section of the Resettlement Administra- 

 tion in the northeast region, during the year. 



