The purpose of the study, summarized here, was to investigate the hypothesis that farmer suicides have increased & that farm suicide is related to recent economic stress & failure. Suicide rates for farmers & for 2 control occupations (forestry workers & truck drivers) for 1980-85 were obtained from 15 states. The hypothesis was supported only after the forestry control group was dropped from the analyses due to the unacceptably high variance for forestry data. (GW)