Interviews conducted with 36 farmers and 175 migrant farmworkers in western New York showed a substantial change in the role of the crew leader during the period from 1951, when no federal or state laws regulated crew leader-migrant relations, to 1978, when a complex set of regulations interceded in the relationship. Farmer interviews showed that only one-third used crew leaders; 34 of the 36 farmers reported that either instead of or in addition to working through crew leaders they hired migrant workers individually. Of the migrant workers interviewed, only 42% had worked with a crew leader at some time in the past year. These findings indicated that migrant work under crew leaders had declined by nearly half since 1953, when a study in the same region showed 65% of the farmers using crew leaders and 81% of the migrants working on crews in the past year. The crew leader role had changed qualitatively as well as quantitatively; regulation of migrant employment had changed the patron-client relationship between crew leader and migrant to a written, contractual arrangement with the crew leader no longer in control of worker wages. Correspondingly, the role of the farmer had changed from producer to manager and labor manager; and the responsibility for social and economic needs of the migrant had shifted from the crew leader to the community, the farmer, and the migrant family network. (Author/JH)