Preface and Acknowledgements 



This bulletin is the first in a new series, to be issued by Agricultural 

 Experiment Stations in the New England States, and involving in 

 most instances direct cooperation with the Agricultural Marketing 

 Service, U.S. DA. The series will deal with various aspects of poultry 

 marketing in New England. This publication describes the main 

 features of the processing industry, based upon a complete enumer- 

 ation sample of plants in 24 counties in 4 New England States. 



The authors are indebted to the more than 200 poultry processing 

 plant operators, contacted by field survey, who furnished the basic 

 information used in the study. They wish especially to acknowl- 

 edge the assistance and critical appraisal received from the Agri- 

 cultural Economics Departments of the Universities of New Hamp- 

 shire and Massachusetts; and from Norris T. Pritchard, Market 

 Organization and Costs Branch, Marketing Research Division, Agri- 

 cultural Marketing Service, United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, Washington, D. C. 



