372 AN"]SrUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



These conditions were fulfilled by selecting strawberries, fresh toma- 

 toes, cantaloupes, and peaches as the products for specific study. 



Procedure. — Basic information was secured by addressing every 

 cooperative association in the country interested in the production 

 and marketing of these products of which this office had record ; by 

 correspondence with railroad officials; and finally by securing from 

 the local railroad agents or their superiors a detailed statement by 

 points of origin of the actual number of carloads of each of these 

 products shipped during the season of 1914. From the same sources 

 of information were determined the periods within which car-lot 

 quantities moved to .market from each of the important areas of 

 production. 



Eesults. — As a result of this survey, publications have been pre- 

 pared and issued showing the supply and distribution of each of 

 these products. These Department Bulletins are No. 237: Straw- 

 berry Supply and Distribution, 1914; No. 290: Eail Shipments and 

 Distribution of Fresh Tomatoes, 1914; No. 298: Peach Supply and 

 Distribution, 1914; and No. 315: Cantaloupe Marketing in the 

 Larger Cities with Car-Lot Supply, 1914. Each contains maps and 

 diagrams showing the agricultural and seasonal distribution of the 

 crop by States and counties and a detailed tabulation of carload 

 shipments by railroad stations from each State, with totals by dis- 

 tinct production areas and for the country as a whole. In connection 

 vvith this work a compilation has been made of cooperative associa- 

 tions and other organizations interested in the shipment of these 

 products, and a representative list of growers of each has been com- 

 piled who are so located as to represent the most important commer- 

 cial areas of production in each case. 



INVESTIGATIONAL AND EXPERIMENTAL MAKKET-NEWS WOKK. 



Preliminary work in the markets. — With the information just 

 described in hand, it was decided to begin the investigation with the 

 distribution and sale of the Louisiana strawberry crop, and since 

 the personnel and means at the command of the office would not 

 permit it to place its own representatives in all of the important 

 markets, some 20 of the larger northern and central markets were 

 visited by such representatives, who made arrangements with the 

 principal handlers of strawberries- in each case to furnish to the office 

 direct telegraphic reports each day of the quantities of strawberries 

 received in these markets so far as this information could be ascer- 

 tained, their sources of origin, and the wholesale prices prevailing. 

 Arrangements were made that these reports be furnished in dupli- 

 cate to our representative in the producing section and to the Wash- 

 ington office. 



This system for securing market reports was modified and de- 

 veloped with the progress of the season as resources would allow. 

 On July 1, 1915, the office had its own men, who were devoting full 

 time to marketing work, stationed in New York, Buffalo, Baltimore, 

 Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City, while it was represented by 

 part-time employees, reporting directly to this office, in All^any, 

 Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, St. Paul, Sioux City, Omaha, Des 

 Moines, and Columbus. At Boston, Pittsburgh, and Denver satis- 

 factory arrangements with commercial houses were still in operation. 



