374 ANNUAL EEPOETS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



ported. Heretofore even the best-informed dealers have not been 

 able to obtain such accurate and comprehensive reports of shipments 

 originating in all districts, of supplies destined to their own markets, 

 of the quantities on hand in competing markets, of markets furnish- 

 ing a possible outlet for their own surplus, or of prevailing market 

 conditions at so large a number of points. This fact has secured for 

 the representatives of the office the enthusiastic cooperation of a 

 majority of the wholesale dealers, commission merchants, and others 

 in all markets where our men are located, notably in New York, 

 Chicago, and St. Louis. 



During the latter part of the season a mail summary was fur- 

 nished by the Washington office to approximately 710 persons, while 

 several hundred more were prepared and mailed from temporary 

 offices at St. Louis, Rocky Ford, Colo., and North Yakima, Wash., 

 largely to producers and shippers whose operation would not justify 

 the expense of telegraphic reports. 



Telegraphic arrangements. — It has been found that the services 

 of four telegraphers are needed for the expeditious handling of this 

 experimental service in its present size. Both the Western Union 

 and Postal Telegraph Cos. have installed direct wires in this office, 

 and arrangements are made by which our operators connect by 

 direct wire and without relay with both Chicago and St. Louis. 

 Methods of handling and checking this information have been so 

 worked out that the percentage of error has been reduced to a mini- 

 mum. The great length of many of these telegrams and the knowl- 

 edge that they will be ready for transmission at a given hour each 

 day enables the office to secure the very best telegraphic service, so 

 that information is assembled in Washington from all parts of the 

 country and rewired to our representatives at distant points more 

 quickly than they could assemble and digest the information if they 

 received it direct from its various sources. 



Owing to the difference in time between the eastern and western 

 markets and the different hours at which sales are most active, it 

 has been demonstrated that the most efficient service will require 

 either that a greater number of reports be issued from this office to 

 cover the various sections of the country or that the information 

 must be handled directly through branch offices so located as to be 

 convenient clearing houses for those cities whose markets are active 

 at the same hours. 



Character of the work. — Each of the activities conducted under 

 this project has been in a new field and there have been no precedents 

 to follow. Underlying principles have been worked out and con- 

 clusions reached as' to what is possible and practicable in the deter- 

 mination of distribution costs and of the consuming capacity of 

 m-arkets, and the foundations have been laid upon which a perma- 

 nent, comprehensive, and efficient market-news service can be built. 

 This project is conducted under the leadership of Mr. Wells A. 

 Sherman, assisted by Messrs. James H. Collins, Carroll W. Dunning. 

 John W. Fisher, jr.] Paul Froehlich, A. D. Gail, jr., John C. Gilbert. 

 Phil C. Tsbell, James P. Klein, L. H. Martin, J. W. Park, R. May- 

 nard Peterson, O. AV. Schleussner, and Houston F. Walker. 



