14 ANNUAL REPORTS OF .DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



demand, both at home and abroad, and by many others who have 

 information needed to help bring aboutthe most economical produc- 

 tion and marketing of cotton. It is expected that out of these delib- 

 erations by the cotton council will come certain definite department 

 policies with regard to cotton. When such policies have been for- 

 mulated it is expected that meetings will be held with agricultural 

 agencies and cotton farmers in the various cotton-producing sections. 

 These meetings should result in formulating policies best adapted to 

 the profitable production and marketing of cotton in the various sec- 

 tions, and the various agencies interested will then undertake to 

 bring these policies to the attention of cotton growers through the 

 cooperative extension agencies of the department and the various 

 States. The same general policy will be followed with regard to all 

 the principal crops. 



Out of the deliberations of these councils which deal with particu- 

 lar crops it is expected there will grow regional councils which will 

 consider in the same thorough and comprehensive way the agricul- 

 ture of important regions of the country. For example, in the spring- 

 wheat region of the Northwest there are certain large agricultural 

 problems peculiar to that region. The same is true of the winter- 

 wheat region of the Southwest and Central West and of the Corn Belt 

 region. The problems to be studied are not limited to the growing 

 of particular crops, but embrace the marketing of those crops, the 

 interchange of crops and commodities, and the relations between the 

 agriculture and the industries of the various regions. 



It seems perfectly clear that developments of the past five years, 

 the important changes in freight rates on agricultural and industrial 

 commodities, and the uncertainties of the foreign market will make 

 necessary important readjustments in agricultural production and 

 marketing. Through such studies as are being made in these com- 

 modity councils it is the hope of the Department of Agriculture to 

 be helpful in making such readjustments. 



SCOIVOMIC RESEARCH WORK. 



On July 1, 1922, the consolidation of the branches of the department 

 doing economic research work was completed, the new bureau being 

 known as the Bureau of Agricultural Economics. Included in this 

 bureau are the former Bureau of Markets, the Bureau of Crop Esti- 

 mates, and the Office of Farm Management and Farm Economics. 



