BUREAU OF CROP ESTIMATES. 335 



The foregoing indicates some of the principal classes of calls upon 

 the Bureau of Crop Estimates for information in 1917 and 1918. 

 Fortunatel}^ the bureau had a highly specialized skeleton organi- 

 zation and through long experience had developed an efficient sys- 

 tem for estimating ciuickly the production and supply of most agri- 

 cultural commodities in this country and abroad. The additiontil 

 funds provided out of the war-emergency appropriation for stimu- 

 lating food production enabled the bureau for the first time to sup- 

 ply the offices of its State field agents with some of the most neces- 

 sary equipment and with field clerks, without which it would have 

 been impracticable to do more than continue the regular crop esti- 

 mates on a prewar basis. The war emergency demonstrated the 

 efficiency and value of the crop-reporting service, not only in time 

 of war but still more in time of peace, as an organization for ascer- 

 taining and summarizing the essential facts of crop and live-stock 

 production which are necessary for the guidance of farmers, and for 

 the formation of intelligent plans of production and marketing. 

 This service is of such great practical and economic value to agri- 

 culture as an industry which is and always will be of fundamental 

 importance in the United States, that the service should be greatly 

 expanded, developed, and specialized in the future. 



