ABSTRACT
The classic study in the area was that of Ryan and Gross (1943), relating to the adoption of hybrid seed corn by two Iowa farming communities. This was an interview study based on recall by the respondents, and established several findings since replicated in other studies, and indeed in areas other than rural sociology. The main results were that the adoption of the innovation followed a bell-shaped distribution over time, and that it was possible to categorise earlier and later adopters and thus discern differences in their social characteristics (age, social status, etc.). Furthermore, the farmers first heard about the hybrid seed corn from salesmen, but were primarily persuaded to try it by their neighbours. Again such a result will appear in many other areas.
