Changes taken place in agriculture and other fields of national economy of Latvia have been analysed. Factors influencing the development of agriculture have been discussed. The important role of the goverments policy and the general situation in the country is emphasized. The preconditions for profitable agricultural production in future are pointed out. A belief in a successful development of agricultural production in Latvia is expressed.

A new series of articles on economic problems is described. Three kinds of economic systems are discussed: 1) traditional economy, 2) market economy, 3) command economy i.e. centralized or planned economy. The regulatory function of the state performed through tax system, fiscal and credit policy, income regulation, social and foreign trade policies is analysed.

The main conditions required for successful pine growing and achieving high productivity are analysed. The problems of the stress condition in pine growing, different management methods and the control of the main pine diseases are discussed. The article presents the fact of the formation of the monitoring network of the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program in the Baltic countries where specialists make observations in the local forest monitoring demonstration squares estimating and analysing not only trees, but also the changes in the environment. An urgent problem - the selection of environmental pollution resistant trees is considered.

Agriculture in leading capitalist countries as a complicated State regulated mechanism is discussed. The functions of the state in regulating agricultural production are analysed. Different means influencing farmers incomes, structure of production, market and prices are pointed out. The aims of national and international programmes assisting the state in its regulating functions, their drawbacks and advantages are considered.

The aims and tasks of veterinary genetics and selection are stated. The role of genes in inheriting physical defects and susceptibility to deseases is explained. The causes of the deseases affecting sires and their daughters are pointed out. The problem of selecting healthy sires with desirable traits is discussed. The importance of artificial insemination for the elimination of undesirable genes is emphasized.

Flax production in Latvia in different historical periods has been discussed. It is pointed out that due to the present market conditions, the backwardness of flax industry in Latvia, high production costs and low quality products, flax production is an unprofitable industry. For its renovation long-term state investments are necessary. It is stressed that the investments should be provided for the three stages of the industry - flax production, primary processing and textile industry.

Different measures of the increasing of the productivity of artificially renovated fir growths are analysed. The growing of resistant growths is the process which begins with the optimization of the initial density and continues with the purposeful regulation of the number of trees. Tree differentiation, their medium height, the average increasing of trees in thickness, the differences of the cross-section and the coefficient of stability are considered in the article. The rooting of cultures, the process of the thinning of a growth and the remaining process of trees are shown in the table 1. The evaluation elements of sixteen-year-old fir cultures with different initial density are given in the table 2.