The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Farming in the Granite State 
Part II. 
IVE STOCK AND HAY.—Dairying first and the 
raising of purebred live stock second are likely to 
be the leading enterprises on New Hampshire farms 
for many years to come. Of course instances may 
he cited in which opportunity is found in market 
gardening, fruit, swine, poultry, sheep, and half a 
score of other lines, but the backbone of agriculture 
in the State is dairying. One or more of the less 
important enterprises may often be used to supple¬ 
ment the main business, and in some cases, under 
peculiar conditions, may be used alone or placed 
first in order of importance. Hay is the most profit¬ 
able crop, but is more largely fed to live stock than 
sold directly, because it carries with it so much fer¬ 
tility. How much of the hay acreage can he profit¬ 
ably replaced by more intensive cash crops, like 
potatoes, beans and fruit, depends on the location, 
climate, soil and managerial ability of the farmer. 
It is not necessary to assume that all the hay must 
be fed. If live stock enough is kept to consume the 
forage produced during the best seasons, hay will 
have to be purchased or stock sold in poor crop 
years. This is not good business. Under such con¬ 
ditions hay is likely to be obtained at a very high 
price, or stock to be sold at a sacrifice. Most years 
some of the best market hay should be sold. 
THE GRAIN CROP—The general statement may 
be made that grain cannot be raised in competition 
with the West. The climate is not well adapted to 
ripening corn, and the topography, at best, is too 
rough to use the extensive machinery necessary for 
the economical production of large tracts of small 
grain. Restricted areas, however, of 
field corn, oats, barley, etc., may be 
grown to supplement the purchased 
feed, to fill gaps in the labor distribu¬ 
tion, or to afford nurse crops for seed¬ 
ing. The southern part of the State is 
better adapted to corn and the northern 
part to oats and barley. The question 
of home-grown grain is not “Will it 
pay?” but “Will it pay better than some 
other crop which can be exchanged for 
grain?” The most successful farms 
have more than one source of income 
—usually one or two main enterprises 
and as many less important ones to 
supplement .them. Often an additional 
gross income of a few hundred dollars may be secured 
with little, if any, additional expense by exercising 
ingenuity enough to find some business that can be 
fitted into the present schedule without conflicting 
seriously with the busiest days or requiring addi¬ 
tional equipment. 
STUDYING METHODS.—The safest way for any 
man to start farming is to copy the best practices 
of the community in which he chooses to locate. 
Having thus mastered the framework of his business 
plan, he can safely study to improve the details. A 
young man, endowed with plenty of ambition and 
good judgment, coupled with a desire to learn, should 
be able to do much better than the average of his 
neighbors. He may get 50 per cent better than 
average production per animal and from 15 to o0 
per cent better crop yields, but nothing is more dis¬ 
astrous than to assume that mere production in crops 
or animals is all that is necessary to insure success. 
Winter Harvest in New Hampshire. Fig. 407 
Every farmer knows how to raise larger crops if 
somebody will foot the bills. The law of diminishing 
returns applies in the economy of agriculture as 
well as in other production. The second hundred 
bushels of potatoes always costs more than the first. 
In other words, there is likely to bo more profit in 
raising a little above an average yield on two acres 
than in trying to double the production on any one 
acre. To try to solve the problems of rural life by 
“growing two blades of grass where one grew before” 
in this sense is an absolutely false policy. Groups 
of farmers are not 100 per cent inefficient. 
EXPENSES AND RETURNS.—Farming may be 
made a remunerative business in New Hampshire. 
By imposing a very few statistics this statement can 
be brought a little more concretely to the mind. 
Records of about 60 farms in Sullivan County show 
an average labor income for last year of $760. The 
average investment in farm, and equipment was 
$6,175, so that, assuming the farms paid for, we can 
add to the labor income $309 as interest at five per 
cent on the investment. This would make a total 
cash income of at least $1,069 per farm. In addition 
to this, each farmer had a house to live in and such 
products as the farm afforded free of charge. The 
10 best farms in this group had an average net in¬ 
come of $2,387. Their average investment was 
$S,76S, leaving for the operator’s labor and manage¬ 
ment, after paying interest on the capital invested, 
the nice sum of $1,949. These were selected farms 
only in the sense that their owners must have been 
enterprising enough to keep such accounts as the 
County Agent suggested in order that these figures 
might be accurately determined. Thirty-three records 
from Grafton County, recently tabulated, show one 
labor income of $4,205, besides $73S allowed for 
interest on investment. The average labor income 
for all the farms in this case was $1,025 after setting 
1291 
aside $439 for the use of money. Similar figures 
might be given for other counties. 
OPPORTUNITIES OF THE STATE.—To those 
farmers who will recognize the fitness of things and 
who are capable of adjusting their business to avoid 
unnecessary friction with natural conditions over 
which man is permitted to exercise no control, New 
Hampshire offers opportunity. He who seeks to 
revolutionize agriculture by the application of far¬ 
fetched ideas and practices will fail. Nature has 
placed her land in different zones, she has cast the 
hills and valleys in varied molds, and carried tons 
of debris to new environments. Climate, soil, topo¬ 
graphy and the problems of transportation are likely 
to change with every square mile. In any locality 
man must study his environment and develop his 
business accordingly. In our present day of organi¬ 
zation and specialization the wonder is not that New' 
Hampshire farms may be somewhat restricted in 
location and in number of profitable enterprises, but 
that these farms, rightly managed, contribute in¬ 
comes comparable with those of other regions. 
M. GALE EASTMAN. 
Those Dirt Roads Once More 
T hat article on dirt roads did stir up the dry 
bones of old grafters here, and we have more 
road work done in this section than in many years: 
We have done our share of the kicking, too, and 
those fellows at the county seat begin to think we 
are here. We are one side of the county, and the 
big towns have their improved roads. We had a 
scrap among ourselves as to where the road should 
be built here, and that held up construction. Re¬ 
cently we have been holding meetings 
at the valley, and have resolutions 
through the board of supervisors to 
build in the valley, and expected to 
have a road soon. The Legislature 
passed a $20,000,000 bond issue to build 
x’oads, which with Federal money and 
some county money would make sixty 
millions, enough to complete the sur¬ 
veyed roads. Now comes Deputy 
Chamberlin saying the Governor vetoed 
the bond issue. The cities have their 
roads, the Federal money will be spent 
on the trunk lines, and the rural coun¬ 
ties will have to build their own roads. 
We have a 10-mile stretch of the worst 
road in the 8tate; will cost $5,000 per mile to build 
a county road. Does anyone think this county will 
issue bonds for $50,000 to build a road on one side? 
All over the State there are the same conditions. 
Mr. Chamberlin admitted that a road surfaced with 
mud from the ditches, with every culvert broken and 
the water flowing across the road every half mile, 
was not adapted to present-day traffic. If we farmers 
have to transport produce eight miles over these 
roads someone will pay. If we don’t have decent 
roads the more enterprising and all the boys will 
leave. Nearly every farmer here owns a car. 
The consumer pays in the end, either due to in¬ 
creased production and higher prices, or higher 
costs due to longer hauling costs. We farmers will 
nc longer work for nothing. It is only a question of 
getting the facts before the public. Personally, I 
am no quitter, and am going to stay to the finish, 
although I am able to live on a State road or any 
A Leading Combination in New Hampshire—Making 3[ilk and Purebred Livestock. Fig. 409 
