Water resource planning is accomplished at several levels—individual projects and small watersheds, sub-basins, regional framework plans, and finally, national planning at the Water Resource Council and congressional committee levels, in ascending geographic scope. All planning efforts are in some measure guided by the statement in Senate Document 97 that, “All viewpoints (national, regional, state and local) shall be fully considered and taken into account in planning resource use and development”. However, the consideration of various viewpoints does not necessarily make them compatible. A plan once formulated favors a particular point of view over others. The local point of view generally carries more weight than the national point of view because: (1) more projects can be justified on the basis of their net value to local interests rather than the public at large, and (2) the local economic effects of a project are more readily identifiable and more easily analyzed than are the net national effects.

A great deal of attention has recently been focused on the problems of environmental pollution and the search for desirable solutions to environmental quality problems. While water and air pollution problems may appear to be of less significance than many other ills confronting society, they nevertheless must be considered serious problems which have aroused a great deal of public concern. It is becoming increasingly popular to advocate the importance of economic, social, and political inputs in the decision-making process regarding pollution abatement and control. I have no quarrel with such advocacy as the need for better information inputs of all types is obviously a necessary condition for improved decision-making.

Conservancy districts can plan and apply land treatment and structural measures to reduce flooding and associated damages. The Conservancy District Act permits conservancy districts to appraise benefits and levy assessments to pay the cost of installing, operating, and maintaining works of flood protection not included in legislative appropriations. We are concerned with the method whereby these specified costs are distributed among flood plain farmers.

The assessment criterion is: Each beneficiary shall be assessed in relation to the proportion of benefits received. That is, flood plain farmers are to pay the proportion of specified flood protection costs that equal the proportion of total benefits received. The objective of assessing is consistent and equitable, but there is yet to be developed a method for computing assessments which meet this norm or objective.

A growing awareness of the need for a comprehensive approach to regional and local planning for studying urban and rural areas as parts of an interrelated socio-economic system has stimulated interest in the problem of delineating economic regions, areas, and sub-areas. The Office of Business Economics, U. S. Department of Commerce, has designated 173 economic sub-areas in the U. S. for purposes of planning by federal agencies. State governments are also busy delineating planning areas for state and local agencies. Ten such planning areas were designated in South Carolina by executive order of the Governor in March 1969. Presumably, future public policies and programs in such fields as natural resource management, industrial development, housing, and highway construction, etc., will be designed and implemented on the basis of these spatial delineations.

Egg production is a continuous process determined by the number of layers in the nation's flock and the rate at which they produce. Annual production usually varies little from year to year. However, economic and biological factors with accompanying management considerations cause production to vary seasonally with peaks usually occurring in the second quarter.

Total egg production statistics include eggs produced for human consumption as well as hatching purposes. The impact of changes in total egg production on farm prices is difficult to assess since eggs used for hatching (primarily broilers) and table eggs are influenced by different economic and structural factors.

Tung has been a preferred natural drying oil because of the high gloss finish, durability and water resistance qualities which it imparts to paint, varnish and lacquer products. However, increased competition from chemical synthetics, combined with lower prices for other natural oils since the early 1950's, has brought a decline of domestic tung oil consumption from 72.4 million pounds in 1950-51 to around 32 million pounds in 1968–69.

The mandatory support program, initiated in 1948, obligates the Commodity Credit Corporation to support tung oil prices to growers at a minimum 65 percent of parity or at 24.3 cents per pound in 1968. Large accumulations of CCC stocks, close to 63 million pounds in 1966, triggered a change in CCC inventory policy.

The soybean economy experienced balanced growth in both total demand and total supply since the early 1940's, but in recent years encountered excess production. Since the soybean economy is effectively interdependent with that of corn, cotton, and rice, programs for these commodities must be tailored to current and potential conditions relating to soybeans. Detailed analyses of sources of increased production, of associated inter-regional effects, and of production alternatives in the soybean area are needed to provide basic information for formulation of new programs. My primary purpose is to discuss the need for expanded research on soybean production patterns. However, most of the emphasis, herein is on developing a comprehensive information framework as an initial step to accomplish the research task.

Researchers in agricultural economics have become increasingly concerned with the effects of structural and technical changes in agriculture upon the size of the farm firm. These researchers not only want to understand firm growth in order to make suggestions for necessary changes in social institutions but also to advise the managers of farm firms.

Recent farm firm growth research studies were conducted using empirically based mathematical programming models to explore growth and to test hypotheses concerning the influence of various economic factors upon growth. For examples, see. Growth in these studies is a function of the assumptions of the particular programming model.

Farming practices in the United States have been shifting from labor intensive to relatively more capital intensive methods with simultaneous development of larger implements and more powerful tractors. In 1956, the largest general purpose farm tractor available was about 57 horsepower, but by 1969 several tractors in excess of 130 horsepower were available. Estimates by the United States Department of Agriculture indicate that by 1970 the average tractor sold will be about 80 horsepower compared with approximately 68 horsepower in 1967.

The recurring shortage of railcars to haul agricultural and forest products continues to be of utmost interest to farmers and agriculturally related enterprises. Pricing systems internal to the railroad industry prior to 1964 may have discouraged railroads from purchasing an adequate supply of railcars to meet the needs of shippers. These same pricing systems also may have discouraged railroads from purchasing high cost market-oriented equipment. An endeavor has been made to examine the performance of railroads in upgrading the quality of their fleets in response to a significant change in the pricing system in 1964.

Although the use of dummy variables in regression analysis is quite common, the implications of alternative models for incorporating dummy variables are not generally understood. References dealing with the use of dummy variables are numerous but scattered in the literature. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate, using numerical examples, the implications and interrelationships among various models which incorporate dummy variables. Five separate models are considered.