The objective of the paper was to bring together some of the preexisting theoretical treatments of dummy variables in regression analysis and to present them in such a way as they could be more effectively used and interpreted. This will enable researchers to select the particular representation that best suits their hypotheses. Four alternatives were exhibited for both a one-way analysis of variance and a one-way analysis of variance with a covariate. The predicting equations were presented in the text of the paper along with numerical examples and their interpretations. The derivations of the predicting equations and variable definitions were presented in the Appendix.

Apple producers in New York's Champlain Valley have traditionally harvested their crop using local and migrant workers, and supplemented this labor force with temporary foreign workers (Jamaicans). In recent years, obtaining certification to use Jamaicans through the U. S. Department of Labor has become increasingly difficult. There has been some concern that the use of foreign workers might be stopped completely. Obtaining skilled migrant crews has also become increasingly difficult, and growers in this area have suggested that the quality and availability of local workers have declined substantially. Thus, Champlain Valley apple growers have been and will be experiencing shifts in the composition and productivity of their harvest labor forces.

As manager of a Production Credit Association field office, I have had the opportunity to observe various management capabilities and operating tendencies of farm operators for the past several years. In this paper I will try to state several of my observations as an agricultural creditor working with farmers on their financial problems and relate these problems to the changing discipline of farm management.

Modern farm management decisions deal with problems concerning the most profitable size and the best combination of enterprises for a given resource base. These decisions determine a farm's operational and/or organizational efficiency. In addition to selecting a new combination of enterprises, farm managers can make decisions on altering and changing their production practices. New methods allow the same products to be produced, but by a different technique. Situations may arise which also change a farm's resource base. A new method of production may enable a farm operator to continue at a desired output level, while decreasing a production input, thereby increasing efficiency of labor, land or capital.

A long-standing problem in agricultural marketing is the question of “optimal” marketing patterns for a seasonally produced crop. When futures markets exist, agricultural economists have often recommended their use to improve marketing decisions, but farmer use of futures as an aid to marketing is not common. This paper considers the potential benefits to upstate New York farmers of hedging using Maine potato futures contracts. Benefits are defined in terms of the mean and variance of returns from alternative marketing strategies for potatoes. A portfolio approach is implicit in the analysis which also relies, in part, on the formulation of a simple price-forecasting model.

There are two basic underlying premises for this paper. The first one is that economics is still a useful discipline. That is, an understanding of economic concepts can contribute to a diagnostic analysis of socio-economic change in the Northeast (among other things), identification of policy options, and even choice. Economic paradigms are versatile and mobile. They help people decide how to deal with all difficult social problems. This assertion is certainly not a foregone conclusion and has in fact been contested rather vigorously. In some circles, clearly those less informed, economics as a discipline has been labeled the villain, the cause for social ills from poor roads to dirty air and water. I would not suggest that all economic advice is good, but that is the fault of the practitioner, not the discipline. Economics, like any other social science, can generate apparent scientific objectivity to support just about any motive of the user. There are virtually no sterile concepts in the discipline. When used to guide choice, all economic principles acquire a normative flavor, inevitably benefiting some interests more than others. Scarcity, the beginning of economics, means interdependence and choice based normative judgments. The challenge for economists as social scientists and particularly as policy analysts is to employ the robustness for the discipline for useful purpose, to provide insights helpful to policy and avoid being intimidated by our own discipline. This leads me to my second premise, that judgments, prescriptions and analyses by economists are probably as good as or better than those offered by anyone else. We owe it to ourselves to be involved.

Past agricultural programs encouraged the withdrawal of cropland from agricultural production. With the removal of crop acreage restrictions and despite the favorable relationships of the 1972–1974 period, all of this land has not been immediately activated into crop production. Some programs encouraged shifts of cropland to pasture, timber production, or to soil improvement uses. Land converted to these alternatives is potentially available for crop production, but whether or at what rate it will be reemployed remains problematic.

Land values have tended to increase at a substantially more rapid rate than the general level of prices in recent years. There is a growing body of evidence that this is occurring due, in part, to factors other than agricultural opportunity costs, size of parcel, improvements and other factors historically related to land values (Bishop, Bryant, Pasour). Some other factors influencing rural land values seem to include urbanization, investment or speculation, and increasing wealth or incomes. Additional information on the determinants of land values is needed if these phenomena are to be more completely understood. This paper reports on a study of the relationships of socio-economic characteristic of land owners (buyers and sellers) and rural land values.

This paper is a scenario of a decentralized land-use planning effort in a small New England community which faced extinction as a result of the construction of a flood control dam and reservoir in 1940. It reports on a study that was specifically designed to take a retrospective look at the social, political, and economic parameters from the pre-relocation period to post relocation. Also, social-psychological impacts were measured through an attitudinal study of the relocated and non-relocated populations of Hill.

I have divided this presentation into two parts, the first is a brief discussion of some of the major factors impacting on the curricula and the second part attempts to relate these factors to a new curricula and the possible future educational roles for Colleges of Agriculture.

Over the past few years there has been a heightened interest in small scale agriculture. Increasing food costs, concern for the quality of food, a concept of self-sufficency, and a reawakening of interest in the positive attributes of rural life are among the reasons for this new attitude. At the national level, the problems of small farms has been explicitly recognized in the 1977 Farm Bill. The following amendments to the Rural Development Act of 1972 were enacted (U.S. Congress, 1977):

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.