Preface and Acknowledgemeiils 



This bulletin is the fourth in a new series to be issued by 

 Agricultural Experiment Stations in the New England States 

 and involves, in most instances, direct cooperation with the Eco- 

 nomic Research Service, (formerly Agricultural Marketing Ser- 

 \ ice ) U.S.D.A. The series deals with various aspects of poultry 

 marketing in New England. This publication describes the main 

 features of the assembly system, based largely upon a stratified 

 random samiilc of 75 firms, and analyzes the possibilities for 

 reducing costs of the assembly function alone and in combi- 

 nation with processing. 



The authors appreciate the cooperation of the assemblers of 

 live poultry who furnished data on practices, costs and input- 

 output relationships. Much valuable information was also ob- 

 tained from the State departments of agriculture in New Eng- 

 land who maintain records incident to the licensing and bond- 

 ing of assemlily firms. The authors wish especially to acknowl- 

 edge the assistance and critical appraisal received from W. F. 

 Henry, of the Agricultural Economics Department of the Uni- 

 versity of New Hampshire; A. A. Brown, of the University of 

 ^lassachusetts; and from Norris T. Pritchard, Marketing Eco- 

 nomics Division, Economic Research Service, U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture. Harold B. Jones aided materially in the collec- 

 tion and analysis of the data. John Payne and Frank M. Conley 

 aided materially in the analysis of data. 



