1. Farming operators attitudes were categorised by TAT (Thematic Apperception Test) using photos, and the characteristics of their attitudes were then analysed in an interview with photos of actual farm wark.
2. Among the testees, both operators A and B showed uneasy feelings such as “anxiety” when facing operational difficulties. As a result, when applied to the “Dabeing realisation” model, the two testees “went down”on the vertical axis of self. Then they “went up” on the vertical axis, while at the same time “moving” along the horizontal axis towards “being together”, “co-operating” and “knowing”. This movement indicated that, after the initial feeling of “anxiety”, they considered the difficulties and tried to establish ways to resolve the problems. By doing so, they tried to overcome “uneasiness”, “anxiety” and “unpleasantness”. Operators displaying this type of attitude have been categorised as “balanced type”.
3. The “balanced type” operators are considerate and eager to work. They are motivated by a desire to work precisely and neatly.

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Questionnaire survey and log sheet analysis on crop protection were carried out to clarify the recent situation of agrochemical application work in the large-scale upland farming in Tokachi region.
1. Seventy percent of boom sprayers were tractor mounted type. They were mainly used in diversified dairy and upland farmers and full time small-scale upland farmers. The typical tank capacity on mounted sprayer was 800 to 1, 500L and the boom width was 13 to 18m. Trailed and self-propelled sprayers were used by 30% of upland farmers with over 40ha. The capacities of the tanks of these sprayers were 3, 000 to 5, 000L with boom width 20 to 30m.
2. Ninety two percent of farmers were concerned about insects and proper timing of agrochemical applications. More than half of farmers were concerned about rain and wind condition. This indicated their concern over uniformity of spraying and spray drift onto other nontarget adjoining species.
3. The highest application was for potato with 4-13 times and 5-25 days of total application work. Sugar beets received the second highest application with 3-8 times and total work of 3-13 days. Those for beans were 2-9 times and 2-16 days, and 1-8 times and 3 to as long as 23 days for wheat.
4. The survey results showed that about 4 days were for herbicide application in May. Peak use was in June to August with 6-8 days for application of fungicides and insecticides. One day was used for herbicide and fungicide applications on wheat during September to November. The average of total application was 28 times per year, and 34 days of operation.
5. The ratio of workable days for spraying was one in four days. Despite of overlaps with other farm tasks, there were only 2 suitable days in May due to the strong wind. The ratio increased to 58-65% during June to August because of the moderate climate.
6. Drift-less nozzle and air-assisted sprayer should be used in order to minimize the influence of the wind.

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Factors to improve the mechanical transplanting accuracy of lettuce plug seedlings were examined for transplanting accuracy and yield under different ridge conditions after rice cropping.
1) A ridger with small radius blades attached in the middle improve pulverization of soil and rice stubble at the ridge surface. However, care was necessary to ensure that submerged rice stubble was raised up to the surface layer at some PTO speeds.
2) Lettuce globe shape differed according to planting depth and angle differences.
3) Missing plants were increased by rice straw which was shredded and sprinkled during combine harvesting. Therefore, it was better to carry the straw off of the field.
4) Picking misses of the fully-automatic transplanter were increased by insufficient seedling root spread because of its pincette style picking mechanism.
5) The compact seedling shape was effective to improve transplanting accuracy of the transplanter with the openertype planting finger.

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Efficiencies of a hand-held vibrator for harvesting fruit from ‘Tifblue’ (Rabbiteye blueberry) [Vaccinium ashei Reade], were investigated by vibrating a branch at a 30mm stroke and a 7.5Hz frequency.
The results are as follows.
1. It was found that heavy and ripe fruit more readily dislodged than light and less ripe fruit. Rate of fruit dislodged with pedicels attached was 23%, rate of green fruit in dislodged fruit was 8% and percentage of ripe fruit remaining among the fruit left on the shoot was 21%.
2. A significant positive correlation was observed between the branch size and percentage of ripe fruit remaining among the fruit left on the shoot.
3. No significant changes in efficiency of harvesting were observed when the distance of the point of application of vibrator was within 80cm of the fruit cluster.
4. From the facts described above, it was concluded that control of branch size, particularly the fruit bearing part by such means as training and pruning is important to ensure efficient harvesting of blueberries.

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