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Current communications trends and social media have given individuals and organizations unprecedented opportunities to build relationships with audience members while introducing and encouraging new perspectives. One particular form of social media is blogging, which allows people to share a wider variety of information than other forms of social media. The purpose of this study was to explore how agricultural commodity organizations use blogs as a communication tool. The researchers purposively selected nine U.S. agricultural commodity groups that had an organizational blog and collected data through in-depth interviews. The findings indicated the organizations started blogging because blogs were the newest communication tool they could use to reach new and traditional audiences. The commodity organizations used some online analytics and mentions on other social media outlets to measure blog success, but they did not establish goals for their blog prior to the blog's launch. The findings offer an understanding of how agricultural commodity organizations are utilizing blogs, which provides insight for others in the agricultural industry who may decide to use this technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the United States-Mexico bilateral agreement in agriculture. General provision of the agreement; Rules of the trilateral agreement covering the domestic agricultural policies and export subsidies; Purpose of the rules; Proposed duties and safeguards under North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Sagebrush steppe and lodgepole pine forests are two of the most widespread vegetation types in the western United States and they play crucial roles in the hydrologic cycle of these water-limited regions. We used a process-based ecosystem water model to characterize the potential impact of climate change and disturbance (wildfire and beetle mortality) on water cycling in adjacent sagebrush and lodgepole pine ecosystems. Despite similar climatic and topographic conditions between these ecosystems at the sites examined, lodgepole pine, and sagebrush exhibited consistent differences in water balance, notably more evaporation and drier summer soils in the sagebrush and greater transpiration and less water yield in lodgepole pine. Canopy disturbances (either fire or beetle) have dramatic impacts on water balance and availability: reducing transpiration while increasing evaporation and water yield. Results suggest that climate change may reduce snowpack, increase evaporation and transpiration, and lengthen the duration of dry soil conditions in the summer, but may have uncertain effects on drainage. Changes in the distribution of sagebrush and lodgepole pine ecosystems as a consequence of climate change and/or altered disturbance regimes will likely alter ecosystem water balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, carried out for the United States Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), demonstrated methods for surveying large landscapes using small-scale, habitat-based stratification, a common problem that has heretofore received little attention. The goal was to design a sampling plan for detecting change in the density of breeding birds of 6 species occurring along the Colorado River around and south of Lake Mead in the southwestern United States. The main problem in designing the study was that the focal species were concentrated in small, irregularly shaped patches of habitat. We partitioned the study area into >15,000 plots configured to enclose the high-quality habitat in the fewest possible plots with the constraint that plots could be surveyed in 1 morning by 1 person. Because of the irregular plot shapes and extremely dense vegetation, we used area searches to carry out the surveys. We used double-sampling, including a large sample of plots surveyed with a rapid method and a subsample of plots surveyed intensively, to estimate detection ratios. A simulation study helped allocate effort between rapid and intensive surveys and indicated that conducting 80 surveys per year would achieve high power to detect a 50% decline occurring during 20 years. This is one of the first studies to show how large landscapes can be sampled using small-scale stratification so that effort can be concentrated in the habitats of greatest interest. © 2012 The Wildlife Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gamebird chick survival is dependent on invertebrate availability, and the ability to access insect prey is an important characteristic defining brood habitat quality. Different mixes of warm-season grasses and forbs were established to improve the habitat quality of fields enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) for gamebirds in the Southern Plains. We analyzed the feeding ecology of human-imprinted, 4- to 10-day-old ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) and northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) chicks in wheat fields and 4 types of conservation practices (CP) fields enrolled in CRP (CP10, improved CP10, CP2, and CP25) in western Kansas, USA, during June and July, 2004 and 2005. Foraging rates were greatest for bobwhite chicks in improved CP10 and CP25 fields and greatest for pheasant chicks in CP10 and CP25 fields. Vegetation characteristics such as bare ground cover appear to have a significant impact on insect selection, because the diet was more diverse for both species in fields with more bare ground. The CP25 fields provided the best combination of mobility and diet breadth for both species. Although herbicide-treated wheat fields had low feeding rates, we determined non-herbicide-treated fields (i.e., weedy wheat) provided easy mobility and feeding rates similar to CRP fields. We suggest that management of vegetation to benefit gamebirds does not affect species equally. Feeding rates of bobwhite chicks were sensitive to vegetation-influenced mobility. Management of CRP fields for both pheasant and bobwhite chicks can be reconciled by practices that permit more open space at ground level, such as light disking or burning, to permit easier movement for chicks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most major American industrial business cycles from around 1880 to the First World War were caused by fluctuations in the size of the cotton harvest due to economically exogenous factors such as weather. Wheat and corn harvests did not affect industrial production; nor did the cotton harvest before the late 1870s. The unique effect of the cotton harvest in this period can be explained as an essentially monetary phenomenon, the result of interactions between harvests, international gold flows, and high-powered money demand under America's gold-standard regime of 1879-1914. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During World War II, the US enlisted behavioral scientists to provide intelligence on combatant nations. In 1945–1951, when Japan was put under Allied occupation in the wake of military defeat, American anthropologists were dispatched to work for the Civil Information and Education Section under General Headquarters in Tokyo, under whose orders they carried out a number of social science surveys throughout rural Japan. The first of these anthropologists, Herbert Passin, hired a number of young Japanese survey assistants trained in the fields of anthropology, sociology, folklore studies and law. They conducted field surveys in farming and fishing villages. On the foundations of these surveys, the US established Japan studies, while Japan imported American-style cultural anthropology. In this article, I chronicle the specific contents of these surveys, while at the same time clarifying the process through which cultural anthropology was established at Tokyo University. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Ecological niche modelling techniques were applied to address the questions of the origins and potential geographic extent of sudden oak death, caused by the pathogen Phytophthora ramorum. Based on an ecological niche model derived from the phytopathogen's California distribution and distributions of potential host species, it was determined that the disease has high potential to colonize the southeastern United States, and that its likely source area is eastern Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The size of the U.S. federal government, as well as state and local governments, increased dramatically during the 20th century. This paper reviews several theories of government size and growth that are dominant in the public choice and political science literature. The theories are divided into two categories: citizen-over-state theories and state-over-citizen theories. The relationship between the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the timing of government growth is also presented. It is likely that portions of each theory can explain government size and growth, but the challenge facing economists is to develop a single unifying theory of government growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farm families with incomes below the poverty line are far less likely than wealthier farmers to receive farm support payments. Using data from the 1989–2004 Current Population Survey, we find that poor farm families are also not participating in other assistance programs. Controlling for other factors, eligible farm families have substantially lower participation rates in the Food Stamp Program and in Medicaid than eligible nonfarm families. Removing farm safety net program payments would increase the number of farmers eligible for these programs but, in the absence of behavioral changes, would only lead to small increases in the number of recipients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand how tree growth response to regional drought and temperature varies between tree species, elevations and forest types in a mountain landscape. Twenty-one sites on an elevation gradient of 1500 m on the San Francisco Peaks, northern Arizona, USA. Tree-ring data for the years 1950–2000 for eight tree species ( Abies lasiocarpa var. arizonica (Merriam) Lemm., Picea engelmannii Parry ex Engelm., Pinus aristata Engelm., Pinus edulis Engelm., Pinus flexilis James, Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex Laws., Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca (Beissn.) Franco and Quercus gambelii Nutt.) were used to compare sensitivity of radial growth to regional drought and temperature among co-occurring species at the same site, and between sites that differed in elevation and species composition. For Picea engelmannii, Pinus flexilis, Pinus ponderosa and Pseudotsuga menziesii, trees in drier, low-elevation stands generally had greater sensitivity of radial growth to regional drought than trees of the same species in wetter, high-elevation stands. Species low in their elevational range had greater drought sensitivity than co-occurring species high in their elevational range at the pinyon-juniper/ponderosa pine forest ecotone, ponderosa pine/mixed conifer forest ecotone and high-elevation invaded meadows, but not at the mixed conifer/subalpine forest ecotone. Sensitivity of radial growth to regional drought was greater at drier, low-elevation compared with wetter, high-elevation forests. Yearly growth was positively correlated with measures of regional water availability at all sites, except high-elevation invaded meadows where growth was weakly correlated with all climatic factors. Yearly growth in high-elevation forests up to 3300 m a.s.l. was more strongly correlated with water availability than temperature. Severe regional drought reduced growth of all dominant tree species over a gradient of precipitation and temperature represented by a 1500-m change in elevation, but response to drought varied between species and stands. Growth was reduced the most in drier, low-elevation forests and in species growing low in their elevational range in ecotones, and the least for trees that had recently invaded high-elevation meadows. Constraints on tree growth from drought and high temperature are important for high-elevation subalpine forests located near the southern-most range of the dominant species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on the periodical prices in 2003 in the U.S. The purpose of the index and accompanying tables and analysis is to measure changes in average U.S. periodical prices in a historical context. The information provided here is of use to librarians who must prepare annual budget requests for serials, as well us those involved in analyzing serials pricing trends over a period of years. The scope of this study is a selected sample of 3,914 periodical titles published in the United States, each of which has an established subscription price. Because of the need to maintain the continuity of current price index data with that presented in previous studies in this series, no additional periodical titles over and above the standard sample of 3,914 titles have been analyzed. Library Materials Price Index Committee (LMPIC) emphasis on historical perspective justifies the sampling methodology used in this study. The price information used is established by the publishers for U.S. libraries.

Discusses the role of Pacific salmon in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems in the Northwest U.S. Description of the composition, magnitude, and distribution of marine inputs to freshwater and terrestrial systems via salmon; Consideration of how variations in ecosystem response may influence management and conservation efforts; Dispersal pathways.

This paper presents results of a comparison of the pollen and archaeological records in interior Alaska between about 14,000 and 9000 calibrated years B.P. (cal yr B.P.). The pollen and archaeological data were first calibrated and then plotted on synoptic maps to visually compare the inferred vegetation with archaeological site occupancy. Unfortunately, the analysis revealed that significant differences exist between vegetation records radiocarbon dated by decay counting and those dated by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), making the chronology of vegetation change difficult to interpret. Despite this, some general conclusions were reached: (1) At about 14,000 cal yr B.P., the initial peopling of Alaska occurred during a period of rapid climatic warming and increasing effective moisture. (2) The Younger Dryas (ca. 11,300-14,000 cal yr B.P.) had little effect on the vegetation and no effect on the people. (3) The early Holocene is marked by fewer archaeological sites by fewer archaeological sites than previous periods; it is unclear to what extent, if any, climate influenced population distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compares the leaf chemistry and in-stream processing of Russian olive leaves and various species of native leaves in two Idaho streams. Concentration of nitrogen in Russian olive; Replacement of native riparian trees by exotics; Rates of leaf processing in the streams.

In this paper we assess the importance of various types of Sustenance activities of various type of sustenance activities affecting population change in the period 1970 to 1980 in nonmetropolitan countries of the United States for the study were obtained from various public documents concerning the economic structure and population of nonmetropolitan Countries. The result indicate that those counties relying on retail and wholesale trade and general agriculture experienced lower rates of population growth than those counties dependent on manufacturing, service-related activities, commercial agriculture and mining. Moreover, the relative importance of the various sustenance activities influencing population change has shifted. We demonstrate that regional variations in the impact of the various sustenance activities on nonmetropolitan growth also existed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author discusses the concept of agricultural workplace safety in the U.S. The authors explain the significance of five elements to obtain industrial safety including the development of a cursory examination of workplace accident causal factors and the identification of appropriate safety policy to each agricultural sector. The authors assert that the regulatory approach embedded in the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 is crucial to reduce workplace accident.

Focuses on the rapid transformation of agriculture in California from extensive to intensive crops between 1890 and 1914. Rise of fruit farming and markets for the products; Questions over the traditional emphasis on changes in transportation, water and labor market conditions; Roles of declining farm interest rates and biological learning in the intensification process.

Discusses the application of the state-factor approach to studies of ecosystem structure and function on the Tanana River floodplain. Flooding representing one of the primary state factors controlling the floodplain ecosystem processes in interior Alaska; Dependent variables, including vegetation; Future research directions as of August 1998.

The recent and deep recession in American agriculture seriously affected state and local government finances and services in 1986. Sharp declines in farm land values began to erode the local property tax base in many rural communities, while rapidly rising property tax delinquencies created more immediate cash flow problems. Many farm states experienced serious budgetary shortfalls as revenue receipts from state income and sales taxes declined or failed to grow at expected rates. Both state and local fiscal problems were exacerbated by federal aid reductions, regional economic conditions, and rising service demands. Such problems made agricultural policy a major issue in the 1986 elections and prompted a proliferation of new policy initiatives, especially by state governments. Some of the policy approaches adopted or being considered raise fundamental questions about intergovernmental relations and methods of public service provision in a rapidly changing policy environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines issues affecting the impact of climate change on agriculture in the United States. Farm-level impacts; Regional impacts on agriculture; Importance of carbon dioxide fertilization.

This paper is principally a description of the role of commercial farming in the structure of American agriculture. The newly altered classification of commercial farms now enables a better description of the total agricultural picture of the United States, and information available under the new classification should serve as a valuable framework for certain phases of social and economic research. Commercial farms made up 68.9 per cent of all farms in the United States in 1950. Although their numbers were decreasing, they comprised 88.1 per cent of the total acreage devoted to farming and accounted for 97.5 per cent of the value of farm products sold in the United States in 1949. As compared with other farmers, smaller proportions of operators of commercial farms performed off-farm work. Their length of residence on the same farm was longer. Commercial farms had considerably higher proportions of tenancy. The commercial farmer was slightly younger than the operator of other farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the growth of federal policy in the United States. Authors say that the recent growth of publicity effort in Federal administration is shown by the variety of publicity practices used by the newer agencies. In the spring of 1937, publicity officials of 44 Federal administrative agencies answered a questionnaire on several aspects of their organization and work. Among the uses of media, wide variety of release is possible, and officials were asked to designate types of release which their offices prepared for the newspaper, radio, and the miscellaneous media. It may be said that an office engages in publicity to a greater extent if it follows two or more of three possible types of program than if it confines itself to one type, say the releasing of news only as it breaks. The novelty of the enterprise was linked in administration with the novelty of the response desired from the public. A response needed by government was consumer response. It was one thing to adopt legislation to provide services and another thing to establish connection with individual consumers who needed services.

No sound rural civilization can be built unless it provides a reasonable satisfaction for the desire for material goods. So long as country people feel that they are handicapped in the struggle for property accumulation, just so long will they be inclined to give up the farm and move into the cities, even though that movement will involve in many respects a lower standard of living. In comparing the incomes of breadwinners on farms with those in other occupations it is necessary to keep clearly in mind the different groups to be compared. Too often the tendency is to make broad and indefinite generalizations from personal observation of wages in the city, of salaries of men in industrial enterprises, or of professional men, with what is known of the incomes of farmers in some limited community. No reliable or valuable comparison can be made except on the basis of similar factors of production in the city and in the open country. An approximate figure for comparison of urban and rural enterpriser''s incomes can be obtained only by adding to the amount given as "labor income" in the farm management reports the value of supplies and house rent as shown by other studies.

This article discusses about educational and vocational information in the U.S. Basic data for many types of researches are furnished by the Sixteenth Census. A considerable amount of significant information about occupations, working conditions and employment trends are available. Census material is considered the best comprehensive data in the field of occupations. These data are obtained by enumerators who go from house to house collecting information. Data of different census years must be compared with care due to the changing practices of the Bureau of the Census.

Traces labor inputs in capital formation in the United States (U.S.) agriculture, compared the various forms of capital as uses of farm labor and relates the labor input to the size of the labor force in the period 1850-1910. Reason for the lack of trend on U.S farms during the period; Factors attributed to the declining relative importance of labor input in land clearing; Discussion on unresolved questions concerning the U.S. agriculture.

This article focuses on documents, reports and legislation related to public finance. In addition to legal treatises on the new income tax law referred to in the department of reviews, various banking houses have issued pamphlets of explanations and instructions which serve a useful purpose for the student of finance. "The Annual Report of the Secretary of the Treasury for the Fiscal Year 1913" devotes two pages to the operations of the U.S. Treasury Department in making deposits for crop-moving in 1918, when commercial paper for the first time was accepted as security for deposits in national banks. Tangible property in Minnesota is now arranged for taxation in four classes. Class I covers iron ore to be taxed at 50 per cent of its true and full value. In class II come household goods, furniture, wearing apparel of family, etc., which are to be taxed at 25 per cent of their value. Livestock, poultry, agricultural products, merchandise, business fixtures, manufacturer's materials, tools, machinery, manufactured articles, and unplotted real estate, except mining land, are included in Class III and are taxable at one third of their value. All of the tangible property is covered in Class IV, taxable at 40 per cent of its value.

Simple Summary: The welfare of farmed pigs can be improved by modifying their environment with bedding, substrates, or objects, so that they can perform more of their pig-specific behaviours. Scientific knowledge on effective enrichment for pigs is not necessarily reaching farms and this paper provides an overview of this issue in the three largest global pork producing regions. In the USA, enrichment has not yet appeared on farms, except when required by higher welfare farm schemes. China hardly has any animal welfare legislation and food safety concerns restrict the use of enrichment on farms. Providing pig enrichment is required by law in EU Member States. In practice, enrichment is not always present, or is unsuitable or inadequate. Other risks to animal welfare include inadequate presentation, location, quantity and size, and maintenance of enrichment. Improvements can be made by applying principles from other fields of behavioural science; welfare knowledge transfer and training to farms; highlighting the economic benefits of effective enrichment; increasing pressure from the financial sector; using novel drivers of change, such as public benchmarking. The poor implementation of scientific knowledge on farms suggests that the industry has not fully embraced the benefits of effective enrichment. Science has defined the characteristics of effective environmental enrichment for pigs. We provide an overview of progress towards the provision of pig enrichment in the three largest global pork producing regions. In the USA, enrichment has not yet featured on the policy agenda, nor appeared on farms, except when required by certain farm assurance schemes. China has very limited legal animal welfare provisions and public awareness of animal welfare is very low. Food safety concerns severely restrict the use of substrates (as enrichment) on farms. Providing enrichment to pigs is a legal requirement in the EU. In practice, enrichment is not present, or simple (point-source) objects are provided which have no enduring value. Other common issues are the provision of non-effective or hazardous objects, inadequate presentation, location, quantity and size or inadequate maintenance of enrichment. Improvements can be made by applying principles from the field of experimental analysis of behaviour to evaluate the effectiveness of enrichment; providing welfare knowledge transfer, including training and advisory services; highlighting the economic benefits of effective enrichment and focusing on return on investment; increasing pressure from the financial sector; using novel drivers of change, such as public business benchmarking. The poor implementation of scientific knowledge on farms suggests that the pig industry has not fully embraced the benefits of effective enrichment and is still a long way off achieving an enriched pig population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information regarding documents, reports, and legislation related to demography in the U.S. The Department of Commerce has issued a pamphlet descriptive of its "Origin and Organization." Some 8 pages are given to a history of the Bureau of the Census. A brief but incisive statement of the beneficial effect of the organization of a state board of health in Pennsylvania, in lowering the death-rate is to be found in "Mortality Statistics of Pennsylvania." J. Kohier has reprinted from the "Jewish Comment" an address read before the Eastern Council of Reform Rabbis on "The Immigration Problem and the Right of Asylum for the Persecuted."

The article presents report of the representative at meeting of the U.S. Department of Higher Education and the National Education Association in the U.S. Presentations by Alonzo F. Meyers of New York University and president Ernest 0. Melby of the University of Montana, provided an idea that the new venture had a legitimate function to perform. A constitution was adopted during the meeting and officers were elected. President of Indiana University, H.B. Wells has been elected president, while president of Illinois Teachers College has been appointed vice-president. Various proposals for the action were approved by the group. The group agreed to establish a committee for improvement of college teachers. It was voted that action should be undertaken with a view to enabling those withdrawn from college to participate in the war effort later to return to complete their college work. It was voted as the sense of the meeting that there should be established after the war an International Education Office similar to the International Labor Office which was affiliated with the League of Nations.

The article offers news briefs related to the study of biology in the U.S. A new biology is available to both graduate and undergraduate students in the Department of Engineering and Science at Carnegie Tech, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The nation's first information and training center devoted entirely to air pollution has been established in New York City. Eight American universities have formed a new educational organization, the Interuniversity Communications Council.