I was talking to a New Hampshire resident a short time ago about the state of agriculture here in New Hampshire. There was a feeling of despondency when he said, “My grandfather had a farm, my father had a garden and I have a can opener.” That might be an overstatement, but it does say something about what is happening to agriculture, especially as it relates to population growth in the Northeast.

The surf clam (sp. Spisula solidissima) is the predominant clam species harvested in the United States. Starting from modest beginnings as a New England bait clam fishery, surf clam meats are now used in virtually all processed clam products, having crowded out other species from their bate or processed goods markets over the past 20 years. This has been due primarily to the surf clams’ greater availability, high meat yield and low cost of harvesting by mechanical means. In 1974, the surf clam fishery produced landings of 96 million pounds of meats, approximately 80 percent of the total catch of all species. The value of landings in 1974 was $12.2 million, over 30 percent of the value of all U.S. landings. Unfortunately, this trend is not expected to continue unabated. Catch in 1975 decreased by 10 percent to 87 million pounds. Current stocks available for harvesting are one-fourth of what they were in 1970 (Chang, Ropes, and Merrill). Due to the increased effort being applied to the remaining populations, it is doubtful that the resource will be able to reach previous harvest levels.

One of the redeeming virtues of the study of economics is that it enables its practitioners to discuss subjects about which they know very little. This paper represents a case in point. The premise of the paper rests on the presumption that aquaculture provides an additional source of aquatic life; this presumption is, of course, true by definition. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential of aquaculture to regulate the harvest from natural production, but more importantly the purpose is to consider the difficulties that even relatively simple tools pose for the fishery manager.

The Atlantic sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus) is harvested in the waters off the coast of the northeastern United States and Canada by vessels from both countries. The Atlantic sea scallop fishery has been an important fishery in the Northeastern U.S. in recent decades. This is particularly true for New England where, during the quarter-century ending in 1976, over 10 percent of the value of all fish and shellfish landed was attributable to the harvest of sea scallops.

In this paper, I discuss some of the more current problems of manpower planning for and in rural areas. Critical issues are seen as:

1. a. Primary versus secondary labor market jobs,

2. b. Poor statistical information with too much borrowing from urban oriented economic indicators such as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Unemployment Insurance (UI) claims.

3. c. The role of government in terms of fostering economic development through public service employment and the coordination and delivery of employment and training programs.

4. d. Reverse migration and the role of public service employment, and

5. e. Public sector versus private sector employment in rural areas.

Are there observable systematic forces that encourage or discourage participation by individuals, departments and colleges in cooperative multi-state, multi-university research and extension rural development work? A better understanding of these forces could lead to recommendations for improved management strategies.

The pages to follow describe an effort involving university researchers interacting with public decision-makers and agency staff to prepare recommendations on a specific issue facing the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The issue is development of guidelines and procedures for using sewage sludge on land for agricultural purposes. The discussion will describe an interdisciplinary effort and an operating procedure for successful completion of a project. In the two-year process of this interaction, the authors gained more than the anticipated number of insights about modes of research and their relative chances for ultimate adoption. These insights are shared in the final section below.