A study undertaken among commercial strawberry growers in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, Canada, sought to define the network of personal contacts as used by the farmers in obtaining information relevant to growing practices. Growers were divided into four adopter categories: laggards, late majority, early majority, and innovator-early adopters. Although the level of adoption was generally high, the higher levels of practice adoption occurred among those growers characterized by larger farms and higher incomes who were relatively younger, were better educated, and who had better educated wives. Ethnic differences in patterns of personal contact and of adoption were noted. The study concluded that personal contacts were far more effective than impersonal sources of information in effecting the adoption of innovations; that the extension service tends to concentrate on personal contacts with a few farmers and to use impersonal contacts for the majority; and that the extension service's use of group instruction and local opinion leaders can extend the range of personal contacts and thus more effectively encourage innovation. (MF)