T H IS study deals with the demand for a particular resource, fertilizer, by farmers. It is part of a larger study dealing with resource demand and product supply by farmers. It is an aggregative study, based on time series data, indicating the variables related to United States fertilizer use.Improved knowledge of variables important in resource demand by farmers is necessary for understanding supply phenomena. Agricultural economists agree that major problems of agriculture revolve around the quantities of farm output and resources used. To date, several studies of aggregate output phenomena have suggested that the elasticity of the aggregate short-run supply function for farm products is low in the short run. However, research in indicating the quantitative effect of product and factor prices and other related variables on output has not been extremely successful. A proposition which serves as the foundation for this study is: Supply phenomena might better be understood if variables relating to demand for agricultural resources are quantified. Farmers make their more exact decisions on inputs; they only anticipate output, since exogenous variables such as weather and nature cannot be predicted or controlled.Fertilizer was selected for the current study since time series data are available, both for the various regions of the United States and for individual nutrients. Also, fertilizer is a resource which is easily divisible. In contrast to resources such as tractors and machinery, an individual farmer can purchase fertilizer in pound or ton quantities. He can readily adjust its use as prices of fertilizer or crops, or other relevant variables change in magnitude.The main objectives of this study are to estimate demand functions for commercial fertilizer and individual nutrients for the United States and regions, and to express demand elasticity for fetilizer relative to fertilizer price, crop prices, and other relevant variables. Also, prediction has been made of demand functions for individual producing regions of the United States. The statistics presented are from single equation, least squares models. These appear largely sufficient for the types of phenomena involved. We have applied some simultaneous equations and "expectation" models, for methodological purposes, but will not present them or the

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This is an aggregative study covering the years 1946 to 1962, with the primary objective ofexamining the most significant factors which affect a market structure for farm labor. A recursive system is used to derive an equilibrium level of both hired and family farm labor during the period studied as well as an equilibrium level of future farm labor requirement by 1970. The findings show that the demand for farm labor was apparently not, or weakly, responsive to the farm wage rate in all regions and it was weakly responsive to the parity ratio, farm machinery and productivity. On the supply side, farm labor also was not, or weakly, responsive to the variables included in all regions with the exception of the farm wage rate or parity ratio in B.C. and the adjusted non‐farm wage rate and farm machinery in the Atlantic region. The results also show that, in Canada as a whole, the projected family labor employment will be 294,000 manequivalents by 1910 or 42 percent decline as compared to the 1962 level, while the projected hired labor employment will be 114,000 manequivalents in 1970 or 14 percent increase in the eight years after 1962. This would likely be the tendency because of the continuous economic development on the one hand and the consolidation of farms on the other.

Three crop insurance programs are evaluated in terms of their eflectiveness of yield risk reductions for 371 Manitoba farms. The examination is first conducted with a proposed index method, with which the relative yield risk reduction magnitude is calculated and compared for each farm una'er each alternative program. The generalized stochastic dominance (GSD) methodology is also used to provide an alternative analytical framework in analyzing producers ' relative preferences among those alternatives by comparing the net yield distributions generated by each program for each farm. The results suggest that, given an actuarially sound basis, the filly individualized crop insurance (FI) program is the most favorable choice for risk-averse producers. lhe area coverage and individual indemnity program (IA) is generally the second best option. The jidl area crop insurance program (FA) is least preferred by risk-averse farmers. Trois regimes d'assurance-recolte sont &valtu!s sur un &antillon de 371 fermes du Manitoba, relativement a leur aptitude d reduire les risques relies aux rendements agn'coles. On propose au prealable une m&hode d 'indexation qui permet de calculer 1 'ampleur de la diminution des risques relies au rendement et de la comparer pour chaque ferme, dans chacun des regimes. On utilise egalement la d&narche de la dominance stochastique gt%eralisee (DSG) comme cadre altematif d'analyse des preferences relatives des producteurs parmi ces trois regimes, en comparant les distributions de rendement net generees par chaque regime, pour chaque exploitation. I1 ressort des resultats que, pour autant qu 'on ait une base actuariellement solide, le regime d assurance completement individualist (FI) apparait comme le choix le plus favorable pour les producteurs circonspects. Ensuite vient le regime de protection base sur le rendement des surfaces en culture dans la region, avec indemnisation individuelle (IA). La solution qui semble attirer le moins les agriculteurs soucieux de protection u blindee w est le regime d 'assurance-recolte bask entierement sur les rendements des surfaces (FA) en culture darts la region.