New England's dependence upon other regions for much of its food supply has become a cause for concern for farmers, consumers, and public officials. As the debate on the region's need and ability to become more self-sufficient in food production continues, the need for an estimate of current levels of self-sufficiency becomes obvious.

This paper estimates New England's level of self-sufficiency for 1975 using secondary data for population, retail expenditures and farm marketing receipts. The region was found to be about 38 percent self-sufficient in overall food production. It produces a high of 176 percent of its seafood requirements and a low of 3 percent of its red meat. Maine and Vermont are surplus food producers.

There is some concern that geographic patterns of dairy cooperative membership, and customary relationships among milk assemblers and processors, may inhibit milk marketing efficiency in the Northeast. Raw milk assembly patterns and hard product manufacturing plant locations are here developed which minimize total regional costs of these functions. Solutions are highly sensitive to season, day-of-the-week, and capacity assumptions. Evidence strongly suggests that regional coordination of milk assembly and manufacturing would result in cost savings and in some re-alignment of present milk shipment patterns.

Bias in estimating recreational values may result if congestion is ignored in the demand model specification. Theoretical and empirical considerations pertaining to recreation congestion are summarized. Empirical results for camping in Western Massachusetts are presented which demonstrate the potential degree of bias from demand model misspecification. The results indicate that recreational values may be strongly influenced by congestion effects and that camping areas with relatively low densities may have a higher economic value than high density areas with similar facilities.

Hay crop forage systems for milk production are compared using the budgeting technique for four feeding plans containing hay (90% dry matter) or hay crop silage (40% dry matter) only and in combination with corn silage as 50% of the forage dry matter. Investments, labor requirements, purchased feed, and cropping program differences are calculated for each hay crop forage system. Hay crop silage-corn silage systems are low cost systems for all herd sizes analyzed. Improved nutrient quality of the hay crop when harvested as hay crop silage is a major factor determining the annual cost ranking.

Data from a sample of Rhode Island households indicate that firewood use along with wood stove use is increasing in response to increases in conventional heating fuel costs. More than half the sample of households reported the intention to reduce their heating fuel costs as their primary reason for burning wood. For nearly 20 percent of the households, the 1977–78 study season was the first heating season that these households had burned firewood. Among wood stove users, 50 percent began using a wood stove for the first season, the 1977–78 study season. Regression results indicate that the variables price, income and primary reason firewood is burned are important in the household's decision on the quantity of firewood burned.

Traditional models in the agricultural labor literature have examined agricultural labor supply in terms of a labor-leisure trade-off by a single individual. This work examines the question of total annual market days in farm and nonfarm work of secondary family workers engaged in hired farm work. The underlying model is one of home production-consumption. A trade-off of market days between wife and older children in a family is hypothesized. Empirical results are mixed, generally supporting a trade-off in the supply of market days in a family between nonstudents and wives, but not between students and wives.

Appropriations politics in Congress concerning the Department of Agriculture and the Federal Extension Service were described for a period covering the years from 1960 to 1975. Analyses indicated that Congressional Committee decisions were affected by the degree of unity within the committees, external support, and confidence shown in the agency. The analyses confirm the contention that the Department of Agriculture and Extension Service have strong and effective clientele groups.

The purpose of this paper is to present a model which was developed to forecast Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) caseloads and payments in Delaware. The model consists of a caseload equation, a paynlents equation and three labor market equations. The model, which was fitted statistically using quarterly data for the period 1958-1976, forecasts significantly better than trend type models. In addition, the model, unlike trend type models has the potential for forecasting turning points and can be used to simulate the impact of proposed policy changes.

The objectives of this article were first to develop a viable predicting model of the West Virginia feeder calf supply using calves marketed as the dependent variable. The second objective was to validate the predicting model using the “leave-out-one-year” procedure and to derive an alternative predicting equation using the jackknife technique. The purpose of the emphasis on the second objective was to provide a simple and direct demonstration, of a useful and necessary technique, for the large group of applied economists, who often use econometric methods, but who do not consider themselves to be econon etric specialists.

Although continued attention has been given to the general study of “community,” we still lack a consensus, operational definition. Such an absence impedes development in this area of study. Because authors have used different areal conceptualizations, knowledge is, at best, case specific. This paper reviews the problem most often associated with aggregation of data, namely, aggregation bias, and considers some additional problems not usually associated with aggregation. The review serves as a prelude to a discussion of community research methodology which, at present, is beset with potential aggregation problems. Interpretation and possible implications of these findings are advanced.

Present land use control mechanisms are seen as inadequate for the preservation of open space, agricultural land, and other “uneconomic” uses of land. Many proposals have been cited as possible solutions to the problems created by present land use control mechanisms. The transfer of development rights (hereafter known as TDR's) is one such proposal. This mechanism for land use control can be of several forms. There are severe theoretical and practical problems, to be discussed, which a transfer of development rights program must overcome if it is to function in practical application.

Inherent in the nature of the scientific method is that today's sophisticated and obscure technology becomes commonplace tomorrow. This maxim also holds true in the agricultural economics literature. Sophisticated techniques are developed and experimented with by econometricians. There is then, however, a large group of applied economists, who use a particular method after it becomes entrenched in the literature. The applied economist must interpret the technique for practical applications and this sometimes results in problems.

It would seem, for the sake of convenience and in the interest of imparting exact information, that the terms used in a discipline should have one and only one meaning. Unfortunately economics terminology is not in such a completely refined state that all terms have unambiguous meanings. In some instances different meanings are attached to the same terms which is a source of confusion. This is especially the case for the term “intensive” use of a resource which frequently has been used to describe the relative abundance of a resource in production. The term has been used inconsistently in two opposing senses when applied to land and labor on the one hand and capital and labor on the other hand. While this may not pose a serious problem for a seasoned scholar who can construe the proper meaning in each context, beginning teachers and students need to be made aware of the inconsistency to avoid confusion and unnecessary debate.