Preface and Acknowledgements 



This ])ulletin is the eighth in a series being issued by the 

 Agricuhural Experiment Station, University of New Hamp- 

 shire, in cooperation with the Economic Research Service, 

 United States Department of Agriculture. 



The series is concerned with various aspects of poultry 

 marketing in New England. Previous publications in the series 

 with their New Hampshire Experiment Station Bulletin num- 

 bers are: 1) Characteristics of the Processing Industry (444), 

 2) Economies of Scale in Chicken Processing (450), 3) Capital 

 Accumulation Potential of Broiler Growers (475), 4) Struc- 

 ture and Performance of the Assembly System (476) , 5) Effects 

 of Firm Size and Production Density on Assembly Costs (482), 

 and 6 ) Economies of Scale in Hatching and Cost of Distributing 

 Broiler Chicks (483). A report in progress is 7) Economics of 

 Mixing and Distributing Broiler Feed. Two companion reports 

 published by the Agricultural Experiment Station, University 

 of Massachusetts are Freight Rates on Feed, Centred Territory 

 Origins to New England and Middle Atlantic States (508) and 

 Freight Rates and the Eastern Poultry Industry (533). 



The objectives of this publication are to determine and to 

 summarize the unit costs of the spatial activities of an integrat- 

 ed poultry system and to show how these costs are affected by 

 changing 1) firm size, 2) production density, and 3) distance. 



The authors appreciate the cooperation of all who in their 

 many ways have made this series possible. Special thanks are 

 accorded Mr. George B. Rogers, Economic Research Service, 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture, who has been intimately in- 

 volved with the planning and conduct of the research of this 

 entire series. 



