The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the depths of the Rees algebra R[It] and the associated graded ring g $r_{I}$(R) of an ideal I in a local ring (R,m) of dim(R) > 0. The relationship between the Cohen-Macaulayness of these two rings has been studied extensively. Let (R, m) be a local ring and I an ideal of R. An ideal J contained in I is called a reduction of I if J $I^{n}$ = $I^{n+1}$ for some integer n.geq.0. A reduction J of I is called a minimal reduction of I. The reduction number of I with respect to J is defined by (Fig.) S. Goto and Y.Shimoda characterized the Cohen-Macaulay property of the Rees algebra of the maximal ideal of a Cohen-Macaulay local ring in terms of the Cohen-Macaulay property of the associated graded ring of the maximal ideal and the reduction number of that maximal ideal. Let us state their theorem.m.m.