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Imaginaries of empty, verdant lands have long motivated agricultural frontier expansion. Today, climate change, food insecurity, and economic promise are invigorating new agricultural frontiers across the circumpolar north. In this article, I draw on extensive archival and ethnographic evidence to analyze mid‐twentieth‐century and recent twenty‐first‐century narratives of agricultural development in the Northwest Territories, Canada. I argue that the early frontier imaginary is relatively intact in its present lifecycle. It is not simply climactic forces that are driving an emergent northern agricultural frontier, but rather the more diffuse and structural forces of capitalism, governmental power, settler colonialism, and resistance to those forces. I also show how social, political, and infrastructural limits continue to impede agricultural development in the Northwest Territories and discuss how smallholder farmers and Indigenous communities differently situate agricultural production within their local food systems. This paper contributes to critical debates in frontiers and northern agriculture literature by foregrounding the contested space between the state‐driven and dominant public narratives underpinning frontier imaginaries, and the social, cultural, and material realities that constrain them on a Northwest Territories agricultural frontier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Imaginaries of empty, verdant lands have long motivated agricultural frontier expansion. Today, climate change, food insecurity, and economic promise are invigorating new agricultural frontiers across the circumpolar north. In this article, I draw on extensive archival and ethnographic evidence to analyze mid‐twentieth‐century and recent twenty‐first‐century narratives of agricultural development in the Northwest Territories, Canada. I argue that the early frontier imaginary is relatively intact in its present lifecycle. It is not simply climactic forces that are driving an emergent northern agricultural frontier, but rather the more diffuse and structural forces of capitalism, governmental power, settler colonialism, and resistance to those forces. I also show how social, political, and infrastructural limits continue to impede agricultural development in the Northwest Territories and discuss how smallholder farmers and Indigenous communities differently situate agricultural production within their local food systems. This paper contributes to critical debates in frontiers and northern agriculture literature by foregrounding the contested space between the state‐driven and dominant public narratives underpinning frontier imaginaries, and the social, cultural, and material realities that constrain them on a Northwest Territories agricultural frontier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite an overall decrease in new farm operations, the number of women farm operators grew 30 percent between 2002 and 2007, with 300 percent growth since 1978. This research suggests, however, that opportunities for women have unfolded unevenly. We argue that women's opportunities to farm are affected by their social location and life course, suggesting that as their lives unfold across specific cultural and economic moments, different cohorts of women experience divergent opportunities to farm. Using in-depth interviews with women engaged in sustainable farming in the Inland Northwest, this article examines how women access farmland. Our findings suggest three methods for access: (1) access through the traditional means of marrying a male farmer and then carving out space for one's self as a farmer; (2) access later in life after a life-altering event like divorce and using personal financial means, such as retirement income or selling appreciated property; (3) access at a young age through the pooling of marital resources with a husband who works off the farm. Our research suggests that women's land access should not be presumed a progressive narrative and suggests the need for a more complex understanding of the challenges that women in agriculture face today despite their increased presence in farming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The identities of women on farms are shifting as more women enter farming and identify as farmers, as reflected by the 30 percent growth in women farmers in the U. S. census of agriculture (USDA 2009). This article draws from identity theory to develop a quantitative measure of the identities of farm women. The measure incorporates multiple roles farming women may perform and weights these roles by their salience to two farm identities, farm operator and farm partner. We use a sample of women on farms ( n = 810) in the northeastern United States to assess the measures of role identity in relation to reported decision-making authority, farm tasks, and farm and individual characteristics. The findings provide a multidimensional view of farming women in the northeastern United States, a far more complex view than traditional survey research has previously captured. This research provides a measure that other researchers can use to assess the multiple and shifting identities of farming women in other sections of the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognizing the inherent pressures on farm families and farmland, USDA has been developing policies and programs that simultaneously attempt to retain existing farm families on the landscape, recruit new farmers, and create lasting economic opportunities rooted in agriculture. In this article we argue that to date there has been an overemphasis on economic and structural approaches and a systematic discounting of the way individual farmer and farm household motivations can differ as they relate to the farm household life cycle, enterprise growth, adaptation, and reproduction. We use a sociological lens to qualitatively and quantitatively examine the social differences between multigeneration and first-generation farmers at the rural-urban interface by exploring how economic and noneconomic values influence succession plans and enterprise structure. We find that the answers to these questions are complex, layered, and not static, as farm households cycle through the life course. We describe how the differences between young and old multigeneration and first-generation farmers can influence the structure of agriculture at the rural-urban interface, and conclude with some practical policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The highly volatile auction system in Australia accounts for 85 percent of ex-farm wool sales, with the remainder sold by forward contract, futures, and other hedging methods. In this article, against the background of an extensive literature on price risk strategies, we investigate the behavioral factors associated with producers' adoption of price riskmanagement strategies (specifically futures and forward contracts) for selling wool. This research presents a behavioral model based on Diffusion of Innovations, the Theory of Reasoned Action, and the Theory of Planned Behavior. We found that the auction system is used as a price riskmanagement tool because other selling methods are considered more risky. We also report on a curious relationship between risk and complexity in terms of wool producers' intentions to use forward contracts. We explored sociological factors in conjunction with focus-group data in an attempt to understand this relationship. This exercise yielded some interesting findings on the impact that trust, habit, social cohesion, and networks have on decision making in the rural community. The significance of this article lies in its application of core sociological theory in a new research context: the Australian wool industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic agriculture is perceived as being more sustainable than conventional agriculture. However, while there is a growing interest in, and market for, organic products, large-scale conversion to organic agriculture is not taking place. Even though conversion from conventional to organic dairy production is not especially difficult in theory, conversion is slow in this specific sector. The conversion process to organic agriculture is often analyzed by investigating farmer motivations and attitudes. However, since modern agricultural production is organized in production chains, which are in turn subject to stakeholder influence, a wider focus that includes these interrelationships might provide new insights regarding the lagging conversion. Based on document analysis, policy analysis, and interviews, this article investigates opportunities for, and barriers to, conversion to organic dairy production in the Netherlands within the setting of the chain network. Opportunities and barriers are found at three levels within the chain network: the actor level, the chain level, and the network level. We conclude that, despite some involvement in organic production and a positive disposition toward it, the chain network is not ready for a large-scale conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to those of other industrialized western European countries, France's agricultural community continued to represent the majority of the national population for a long time and only became one of many minority groups at the end of the twentieth century. It then came under the influence of various trends, sometimes conflicting but nevertheless presenting a certain sociological and political unity. With the weakening of the demographic, territorial, economic, and political foundations of the French agricultural population, rural sociologists are now required to present a new analysis and a revised assessment of its position in French society. The object of this article is to promote better understanding of the reasons behind the blurring of images and representations associated with French agriculture. It invites readers to review and understand the different facets of an imagery that presents a paradox compared with the ideological constructs associated with the historical record of farming and the farming profession. Working in the tradition of the French school of rural sociology, we have set out to offer a sense of the social realities that now represent the main areas of analysis for French and European rural sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the influence of farmer knowledge upon decision making processes. Drawing upon the sociological debates around the ideas of reflexive modernity and biotechnology as well as from classic adoption and diffusion studies, I explore the influences upon farmers' use of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn. Utilizing survey data gathered from corn farmers in Minnesota and Wisconsin, I argue that farmers are 'reflexive' actors who actively negotiate between 'expert' and 'local' knowledges when deciding to plant Bt corn. Furthermore, I hypothesize that farmers are more likely to be influenced by their first-hand or local experiences than by state or expert observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the epistemic barriers to sustainable agriculture, which are those aspects of food production that are not readily revealed by direct perception: such as decreases in rates of soil and nutrient loss, increases in levels of beneficial soil micro-organisms, and reductions in the amount of chemicals leaching into the water table. While many of sustainable agriculture's most touted benefits cannot easily or immediately be seen by producers, the opposite can be said of the benefits of conventional agriculture: from, for example, weed-free rows and pest-free fields to tall stalks, large yields, and commodity uniformity. Yet, while its benefits are readily apparent to many operators, the costs of conventional agricultural production often are not because conventional agriculture partly externalizes those costs to society at large. This paper investigates how the tension between the "visible" and the "nonvisible" plays out in the debate between sustainable and conventional agriculture. It concludes by suggesting potential solutions to overcoming these epistemic barriers, so as to make the epistemologically distant aspects of sustainable (namely, the benefits of) and conventional (namely, the costs of) agriculture more visible to all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agroforestry, the practice of raising crops and trees together in ways that are mutually beneficial, provides farmers with an alternative to more conventional farming practices. In this paper, we apply Bourdieu's concepts of “field” and “habitus” in an attempt to better understand the practice of farming and the role that agroforestry may have in farming systems. Analysis is based on qualitative and quantitative interviews of farmers and other key informants in two regions, Fox-Wyaconda Watershed in northeast Missouri and Scott County in southeast Missouri. Within the field of farming, farmers emphasized the importance of economic, family and rental relations. Important habitus considerations include different interpretations of what constitutes farming and what constitutes forestry. Based on Bourdieu's theoretical framework, we offer three alternative paths of social change that may lead to more widespread utilization of agroforestry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT We test two sets of hypotheses concerning the association between gender and various structural and attitudinal variables, using data collected in two surveys (1979 and 1995–1996) from random samples of land-grant agricultural scientists. The first set of hypotheses centers on the expectation that the resources and rewards of agricultural science are distributed unequally by gender. We find significant gender differences in scientists' postdoctoral work experience, academic rank, employment of graduate students, rate of book publication, and links with private industry. Our second set of hypotheses, drawing on the literatures of feminist epistemology and situated knowledge, focuses on the relationship between scientists' gender and perceptions of the goals of agricultural research. Our findings indicate that gender is unimportant in explaining differences in scientists' commitment to agricultural sustainability, environmental issues, and family farm preservation as important goals of land-grant research. Yet we find significant gender differences in attitudes toward biotechnology and the growing links between land-grant universities and private industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article links macro social change to emotional health through continuity and change in farming. Family income, when combined with occupation and education, establishes important dimensions of socioeconomic status. Also, the social causation hypothesis in the stress-distress tradition argues that certain positions in the social structure entail more stressful life events than others. Families in transition from one occupation to another, and those with lower socioeconomic status, are expected to have fewer defenses and to be more susceptible to uncontrollable stressful events. The relationship of wives' employment to the slope of per capita family income is significant, but the intercept is not. This may mean that wives' employment 1% not used to improve the families' overall economic well-being but to reduce or compensate for other losses in incomes (i.e., to prevent declines in the slope). A presumed causal relationship is even more dramatic, however, when the level of one variable is linked to subsequent change in an! other. When an effect is strong, it propels people on a trajectory of change: as, for example, when high levels of stressful events generate states of depression that persist for years.

Historical evidence and recent theory on the role of farmers as a support base for public agricultural research suggest that the rank-and-file of farmers tends to be ambivalent about agricultural research as a means for enhancing their welfare. Except for those early adopters of technology who are in a position to receive innovators' rents, most farmers receive little or no benefit from or suffer costs due to technologically induced increases in productivity and output which result in declining product prices. This research utilizes partial correlation analysis of survey data from a random sample of farm operators in New York State to test hypotheses concerning farmer ambivalence about agricultural research and the social bases of farmer orientations toward research. The results show that while farmers tend to express positive attitudes toward items reflecting generalized support for the role of science and technology in agriculture, they also express a considerable degree of criticism of or cynicism toward the responsiveness of public agricultural research institutions and the types of technologies they have developed. The correlates of two indexes of farmer orientations toward agricultural research, based on the two sets of items reflecting generalized support for this research and criticism of its responsiveness or relevance, are examined. Structural factors most closely associated with support for and perceived relevance of agricultural research were indicators of farm size and wealth and contact with extension. Several attitudinal indicators-especially profit orientation, cynicism toward agribusiness, and concern with agricultural pollution-were found to have substantial direct effects on the two dependent variables when major structural correlates were controlled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "Goldschmidt thesis" has played an important role in the recent development of the sociology of agriculture. Goldschmidt has argued that the scale of farm operation determined the quality of life in rural communities. This paper uses county-level data from a midwestern state to analyze two hypotheses that are drawn from the literature on the Goldschmidt thesis. The analysis is based on historical data for the time period 1934- 1978. The first hypothesis, that the scale of farm operation would be negatively related to the quality of life in rural communities, was confirmed, with some important qualifications. The second hypothesis, that the indices of quality of life would be negatively related to the amount of increase in farm size over time, received limited support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study was conducted using data collected from a statewide sample of Ohio farmers to assess the correlates of selected farm technologies presently being used. Predictive factors chosen for examination included sociodemographic, attitude, and economic constraint variables. The findings revealed that the economic constraint factors were the best predictors of all the technologies evaluated. Indicators selected to represent the traditional diffusion paradigm were demonstrated to be relatively unimportant as predictive factors. The findings are discussed in the context of the diffusion and economic constraint models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two recent controversies in the sociology of agriculture--one dealing with the adoption of agricultural innovations and the other with the energy intensity of farming--are analyzed from an environmental sociology perspective. The controversies illustrate sociology's entrenched habit of ignoring the physical environment, and the pitfalls of doing so in research on agriculture. A consideration of common themes in the two controversies leads to suggestion for systematically incorporating environmental variables into sociological research on agriculture. An ecological perspective is offered as a means of sensitizing sociologists of agricultures to the importance of environmental conditions in their research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diffusion theory and research have not adequately examined the adoption of practices designed to protect the environment. Data gathered through telephone interviews with Illinois farmers are used to study the adoption of soil conservation practices (operationalization of environmental innovation) and commercial practices. We find that existing knowledge of adoption behavior is most applicable to commercial agricultural practices, and that adoption of environmental practices does not relate to adoption of commercial practices. Environmental innovativeness is not predicted well by demographic variables commonly used in adoption research. Findings suggest that past emphasis in diffusion research on commercial practices has led to generalizations which need to be carefully evaluated before applying them to environmental problems, and that new promotional strategies are likely to be required for voluntary adoption of environmental practices by farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Mexico, agricultural production does not progress on a parallel with that in other countries. For example, in the United States the fruit industry of California, the cotton production of the cotton belt, the wheat crops of the Middle West, all have been improving simultaneously in quantity and quality. Aside from conditions of soil fertility, this is due to the fact that all of the social groups which make up the American rural population have evolved not only from the agricultural viewpoint, but also from the standpoint of all the characteristics of civilization. There are many rural people, principally Indians and Mestizos, who persist in applying to their agriculture the antiquated systems and implements of Colonial origin that employs the more advanced methods which were introduced in the nineteenth century but which obviously are very much out of date. An attempt has been made to remedy this state of affairs by measures which have been considered most direct and effective. These consisted of granting to the peasants land, water, implements, modern machinery, choice seed, fertilizer, agricultural instructions, etc.; but, the results obtained have not corresponded in general terms with the generous intentions.

The occupational prestige of farming is particularly important in underdeveloped countries, because typically more than half of the employed population of these countries are engaged in farming and because urban industrial centers necessarily draw a large proportion of their populations from the farming areas. The real sense of the prestige of farming is the major factor in the subjective experience of mobility as seen by people in underdeveloped countries. As a part of the larger study on occupational mobility, the author made a research on occupational prestige in the area of Dumaguete City, Philippines. The research method employed by the researcher is mainly interview regarding occupational affiliation in the city. In analysis of the meaning of prestige ranking of a particular occupation, the author related its prestige positions to attitudes and characteristics presumed to be connected with the concept. One of the most useful is a measure of perceived social mobility for persons who have intergenerational mobility, then education and occupational aspirations. As a result, the author concluded that relatively high prestige attributed to farming is not reflected subjectively in the three measurement basis stated above. In a word, the prestige attributed to farmers appears to be anomalous. This could be explained by peculiar connotations attached to farming and farm which is highly related to the prestige of the occupation. If the function could be identified with other terms, perhaps the anomaly would disappear.

Farm innovation refers to the adoption by farmers of techniques and implements conducive methods for easier, more productive or more profitable farming practice. This study aims to compare predictions from static and dynamic models of farm innovation. To start the comparison, the author gathered data through questionnaires that were answered by a total of 116 Baganda farmers in two similar rural areas near Kampala, Buganda District, Uganda. Then, two different models were used to make the predictions to the levels of adoption. These models were termed as Poisson model and Contagion model. As a result of the comparison, the author of the study concluded that the satisfactory fit of such a static model to diffusion data for a community suggests a relatively conservative, introverted and independent culture personality syndrome.

This article undertook the present sociopsychological inquiry into the value orientation of North Indian farmers of Delhi villages and its effect on the adoption of farm practices. The value orientation of the respondents was studied on five selected dimensions: 1.) conservatism-liberalism; 2.) fatalism-scientism; 3.) authoritarianism-nonauthoritarianism; 4.) parochialism-cosmopolitanism; and 5.) familism-individualism. According to the authors' interpretation of these factors, they found that transition in relation to modernism and socially determined factors influenced the respondents' value orientation. The results of this study indicated that the value orientation of these farmers is not unidimensional, but rather, multidimensional.

In 1965 the innovativeness of ‘shifting cultivators’, who were Mayan Indians living in San Antonio, British Honduras, was investigated. Because ancient practices of agricultural production were followed with few modifications, attitude statements were used to construct both an innovation and a traditionalism scale. It was assumed that those favoring the statements in the innovation scale were implicitly expressing a willingness to internalize values demanded by a nontraditional agriculture. Conversely, those scoring positively in the traditionalism scale were considered apathetic toward changes in their way of life. In general, the shifting cultivators had favorable attitudes toward innovation. Multiple regression analyses were used to identify specific variables which were related to the modification of traditional attitudes. Age, education, level of living, contact with extension agents, and aspirations were found to be significant variables in the analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the morphogical and functional traits and regional influence of service centers in the Hindustan-Tibet Road between Simla and Narkanda in Himachal Pradesh, India. Fieldwork involved a count of all service establishments in 16 centers of the Hindustan-Tibet Road, called the Highway. In this area of difficult mountainous terrain, low levels of urbanization, economic development and backward transport, the Highway has played a dominant role in the evolution of service centers. The area lacks a graded and articulated organization of central-places and nodal regions and there is a wide gap in terms of number and variety of services offered between the rudimentary service centers and larger centers. However, recent expansion along the newly-opened routes hold a promise of a more articulated functional development. The author of this article stresses the need for more comprehensive surveys of such underdeveloped areas in the strategically important Himalayan region to fully understand the areal functional organization, which will be of significant for administrative, economic and defense planning.

The article illustrates the process of adoption of new idea by farmers. The author opines that the first step in this process occurs when the individual becomes aware that the innovation exists, then develops interest, evaluates, tries, and perhaps adopts the innovation. This article informs that the rural sociologists have concentrated their research efforts on the investigation of factors related to the time at which a farmer adopts a new idea relative to the time at which other farmers adopt the same idea. Farmers have been categorized as innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards on the basis of their relative time of adoption. The time dimension is also involved in another aspect of the adoption process which has not been carefully explored to date. The dimension is the period of time which an individual requires to pass through the adoption process, that is, from awareness to adoption. This length of time required for the adoption process to take place is called the adoption period. The article contains the methodology for the study and its finding.

Rural sociology came into existence in response to a need for understanding the conditions and problems of rural life. The early textbooks in the subject emphasized a wide variety of social problems in rural areas, but the main topics in these, and in the later textbooks as well, dealt with population composition and population change, the influence of occupation (farming), group relations, and rural social institutions. Research in rural sociology has evolved through various periods of development. They are: (1) the pre-Purnell period which ended in 1925, (2) the depression period in the nineteen-thirties, (3) the war period, and (4) the postwar period. The latter period is characterized by more intensive research in various areas and by the addition of new areas such as social action and the socioeconomic aspects of farming. Extension work in rural sociology is increasing in importance. In addition to work in conferences and short courses, consultation with community leaders and extension personnel is becoming an important part of rural sociology extension. In many ways extension work is in the vanguard of all work in rural sociology. This is illustrated by rural development programs in the United States and by community development programs in foreign countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on the remolding of agricultural populations into effective urban work forces. The purpose of this article is to present a plausible explanation for the influence of farm plans on levels of educational and occupational aspiration which can also account for the development of the farm plan itself. Since this explanation is for the most part inferred from data rather than derived directly from theory, it must be considered tentative. In any case, it applies only to the relatively literate rural people of highly urbanized industrial areas. Clearly, then, it needs to be tested under similar conditions elsewhere, and to be reformulated for use in economically deprived societies. It is informed that the data compiled for the study presented in this article were provided by the 109 seventeen-year-old farm boys in school in Lenawee County, Michigan. These boys constitute about 70 percent of the total age group. The others were no longer in school, but it is doubtful that their absence changes the conclusions substantially. It is opined that the findings of the study presented in this article may be useful for agriculture in urban-industrial societies and, with modifications, in other types of societies. But before this conclusion is reached, the explanation should be retested.

The study presented in this article tests the hypothesis that the social organization and culture of locality groups are major factors that are influencing adoption of new farm practices. Recent analyses of the adoption of new farm practices have emphasized individual differences in the characteristics of early and late adopters. Theoretical considerations and also some empirical evidence suggest that the kind of social structure in which a farmer lives should be at least as important as individual differences. It is opined that a farmer with a high level of education, on a large farm, and with a high net worth, but residing in a township with a low level of adoption of new farm practices, will probably adopt fewer improved practices than he would if he farmed in a township where the average adoption level is high. It is concluded that difference in the adoption of new farm practices between the townships of Alto and Deerfield can only be partly explained by differences in individual characteristics or by values directly affecting farming. There is always a risk involved in the adoption of new farm practices, and farmers of Dutch Calvinistic origin seem less willing to undertake this risk than other American farmers.

This article presents information on farm practices. It is proposed that the adoption of improved practices by farmers is a function of contact with information sources. The relationships of farmers' personal and social characteristics to this basic causal linkage are examined for 285 farm operators in Washington County, Kentucky. It is informed that the analysis of data collected from farm operators in Washington County, Kentucky by C. Paul Marsh and A. Lee Coleman showed that twelve or more of sixteen farm practices surveyed were significantly associated with nine measures of farmer's personal and social characteristics. Since many of these characteristics were intercorrelated, Marsh and Coleman examined "the relation of three of them-- education, socioeconomic status, and contact with agricultural agency representatives-- to the adoption of each practice with each of the other two factors held constant." The partial relationship of adoption to each of the three characteristics was found to be in the same direction as in the simple cross-tabulations although not nearly so clear-cut and consistent. These findings, however, were not related to an empirical theory of practice adoption.

A variety of projective techniques have been utilized in recent years by psychologists, social psychologists, anthropologists, market researchers, and rural sociologists. Although originally developed for the clinical situation, some of these projective techniques have proved to be useful in field interviews as well. The purpose of this research note is to describe the methodological aspects of the use of projective techniques in a study of reference group influences in the adoption of farm practices. In a series of field interviews with central Iowa farm operators in 1955, using direct questions and a printed interview schedule, the authors attempted to secure information about the important reference groups and their influence upon adoption. It was difficult to formulate questions to elicit the desired type of information, and the respondents did not seem to view this as a socially-acceptable topic about which they would give answers. Few of the 148 farm operators were willing to admit on the basis of direct questioning that any reference group influenced their farming decisions.

Presents information on various studies related to sociology, published in the September 1949 issue of "Rural Sociology." Research on the economic and social status of rural Negro families in Maryland; Changes in the level of living among families in three farm areas of the Prairie Provinces; Sociological survey of the wheat farms in Victoria.

This is a comparative analysis of two contrasting systems of agriculture as they are carried on in the Mexican village of Tepoztlan, Morelos. Hoe culture and plow culture are shown to be distinct culture complexes each with their associated traits. Differences in technology, types of terrain used, land tenure, work cycles, production time, costs and yields are examined. The social aspects of the two systems are also examined. It is seen that hoe culture is identified locally with the poor and backward, plow culture with the better-to-do and more modern. The identification of these systems with distinct socio-economic levels makes for cleavages and some conflict. The implications of this for the concept of the folk culture is briefly indicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study about the use of the goods by a group of fifty farm families in a prosperous community in Illinois. Forty-eight percent of these families are saving to pay for or have recently finished paying for the farm. This was truly a joint project since wives had a part in the plans and were as much interested as their husbands in making ownership possible. In 40% of the families the wives help plan the farm business. Among non-owners, the husbands decide when to borrow money but among owners only 40% of the husbands decide alone with the husband and wife always deciding together in a second 40%. In both groups the husbands decide upon the amount of life insurance but the wives help arrive at the amount of the insurance carried on the furniture. Among tasks frequently performed, the chores, vegetable gardening and care of chickens are often shared by several members of the family. A division of labor seems to have been developed for most of the other work. Each person performs his assigned or chosen operation.

The article comments on the report of Land-Grant College Committee. In many respects this report is the most statesman like document to appear from this association in many years. It makes proposals that take courage because they run counter to historic regional attitudes, now outmoded by permanently changed conditions. At other points the report is disappointing in that it stops short in important areas of applying to specific problems some of the very principles it enunciates. Perhaps designedly and defensibly it fails to implement in any detail the steps, which can be taken even now by land-grant colleges through their existing organization toward the solution of some of the problems raised. It reveals also in spots the preconceptions of its farmers, preconceptions that in themselves have been discredited by the advancing knowledge. The report begins with a declaration that the land-grant colleges and one might well add the United States Department of Agriculture must be concerned with economic factors as well as with technical agriculture.

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The article focuses on the sociology of agriculture. Concern with a crisis of identity in rural sociology has highlighted its history of ignoring the sociology of agricultural production. Rural sociologists tend to occupy peripheral roles in applied agricultural research. Particularly in international agriculture, rural sociology has an image as a marginal discipline generating perfunctory research on trivial issues. The Social Ecology of Innovation by sociologist C. David Gartrell manifests some symptoms of this problem.

This article presents information on the influences made by neighborhood norms on individual farmers with regard to their adopting new farming techniques. The method adopted for assessing the attitude norm for a given district was to ask all farmers in a district questions concerning the attitude of most farmers in the neighborhood. It is informed that all the data analysed in the study presented in this article shows that leaders do have a higher adoption rate than the average for the district and the observed data accord quite well with the assumption that a farmer, if he is to be regarded as a leader, must have an adoption rate which is higher than the avenge adoption rate of those who vote for him by a given proportion of this average. The data quoted for five districts studied show that leaders have an adoption rate which is approximately 20 per cent higher than that of other farmers taking the leader's practice adoption rate as the base. The likelihood of a farmer being voted for as a leader appears to diminish both when the proportional differences between his adoption rate and that for farmers in general decreases and also when this difference increases.

The article proposes a pattern that permits the Cooperative Extension Service to take full advantage of the resources of the social sciences, by way of the extension rural sociologist. There is fairly general agreement among extension workers, land-grant college administrators, and rural sociologists as to the general areas in which rural sociologists should operate. These areas are (1) the social aspects of agriculture and rural life, and (2) human relations factors in program development and implementation. However, there is no general agreement as to the place of the rural sociologist within the extension organization. The educational theme indicated by the following excerpts is the predominant theme in the literature of the Cooperative Extension Service. This theme is the basis on which the job description of the extension rural sociologist should be developed. The extension rural sociologist is concerned with the way people define their interests and problems, and the way they go about acting upon them. The requirements indicate that the extension rural sociologist should be connected functionally with the higher echelons of the administrative organization. Such a connection places the rural sociologist in direct contact with many channels of communication.

The article presents remarks of the author on a publication by the Subcommittee of the North Central Regional Rural Sociology Committee on the diffusion of new ideas and farm practices. This publication presents a model for describing the adoption process discusses the stages: awareness, interest, evaluation, trial and adoption. It is viewed that according to the publication, the farmer must be regarded as a passive agent in the process and he is bombarded by information in order to make him aware of new farm practices, but the function of the awareness is not clear in terms of the dynamics of the process. The article raises a question that whether or not the manner in which the adoption process is conceptualized make a difference in presenting technical agriculture research to farmers. Some other research are also mentioned in the article as "Validity of the Concept of Stages in the Adoption Process," by George M. Beal, Everett M. Rogers and Joe M. Bohlen and "Acceptance and Diffusion of Hybrid Corn Seed in Two Iowa Communities," by Bryce Ryan and Neal Gross.

Among the current efforts to increase the effectiveness of agricultural advisory work in Europe is a project of the European Productivity Agency (EPA) in the evaluation of agricultural advisory methods and aids. The basic point of view within which the projects in the several countries were undertaken was set forth in a working memorandum prepared in the secretariat of the EPA, and is here reviewed briefly because of its applicability to similar work elsewhere than in Europe.

This article examines the adoption of new farm practices among farmers in certain communities in the U.S. In a study conducted in a North Carolina community, it was found that farm operators, to whom other farmers went to for advice on farm matters, were not far ahead of the average farmer of the community in the adoption of new farm practices. However, in another study conducted in a Missouri community, it was found that farmers, to whom other farmers most frequently talked about farm matters, were far ahead in the use of recommended farm practices. The hypothesis, then, is that in areas of low adoption, the adoption rates of leaders are similar to those of other farmers. The hypothesis assumes that leaders in farming matters reflect, in large part, the values and attitudes of most farmers in the neighborhood regarding such matters; and that the adoption rate within a neighborhood indicates, in part, the attitudes of the residents toward changes in farm practices.

This article talks about the study of rental arrangements in relation to a changing agriculture conducted by the South Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station in cooperation with the Bureau of Agricultural Economics and the Southeast Land Tenure Research Committee. The first phase of the study is concerned with the relationship between tenure arrangements and mechanization. With the aid of the Statistical Laboratories at Raleigh, North Carolina and at Ames, Iowa, a master sample is being drawn in selected South Carolina and Georgia counties.