BUEEAU OF CEOP ESTIMATES. 281 



periods in the life history; of a crop, field agents must get out in the 

 field and examine individual plants. The greater the number of 

 fields examined, the more accurate will be the field agent's judgment 

 of the extent of damage from various causes. At the present time 

 field agents travel from town to town by rail or trolley, and at 

 each point it is usually necessary to hire a conveyance to go out 

 into the country. Trains run at irregular intervals, and it is often 

 difficult to obtain a conveyance at stopping points. The agent 

 can inspect only a small territory in the vicmity of a town and often 

 loses much time waiting for trains. The use of automobiles by 

 agents would obviate many of these difficulties and by enabling 

 the field agents to visit crop-producing areas not readily accessible 

 by railway, with power to stop at any point en route to exaniine 

 particular fields, would increase the efficiency and dependabihty 

 of the service many fold. 



It is highly desirable also that the clerical force in Washington 

 should be increased in order to handle properly the increased number 

 of returns from the field force and to meet the increasing demands 

 which are constantly being made upon the bureau for special investi- 

 gations. Irrespective of whether the field force is increased, the 

 desirabihty of a substantial increase in the clerical force of the bureau 

 is becoming more and more apparent. There has been an increase of 

 only 11.5 per cent (10 clerks) in the clerical force of the bureau dur- 

 ing the past decade, while the volume of work to be done has nearly 

 doubled and is hkely to increase as the agriculture of the country 

 develops and as interest grows in the production and consumption 

 of agricultural products. 



An appropriation of $650,000 per annum (including statutory 

 salaries) would enable the bureau greatly to improve the crop- 

 reporting service. This amount is approximately 10 cents per 

 annum for each farm in the United States and less than 0.01 per cent 

 of the estimated annual value of crops and five stock raised each 

 year on these farms. While this total seems large, it is for estimating 

 the acreage and production of all the principal crops (more than 50 

 in number) and the several classes of live stock in the United States, 

 and it is less than double the amount annually appropriated by Con- 

 gress for taking a census of a smgle crop — i. e., a report by the Bureau 

 of the Census of the amount of cotton ginned. While improvement 

 in the crop-reporting service as suggested is greatly to be desired, on 

 account of the existing situation it is not intended to submit any 

 recommendation this year that Congress appropriate the additional 

 funds necessary to make such improvement practicable. 



The fact that the crop-reporting service has been able to meet the 

 increasing demands upon it with its present inadequate force is due 

 largely to the cooperation of pubhc-spirited men in every community 

 who serve as voluntary crop reporters without monetary compensa- 

 tion and to the loyal and eflScient service of employees in the field 

 and in the Washington office who cheerfully work outside of the 

 customary office hours and on Sundays and legal hohdays when 

 necessary to tabulate returns in order to get the crop reports out 

 promptly. 



