608 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Car-lot movement reports were received during the year on nearly 

 735,000 cars of 24 of the principal fruits and vegetables. These re- 

 ports were submitted by 1,275 division superintendents and other 

 officials representing approximately 500 transportation lines. 



At the opening of the year 1921 there were 14 market &i;ations in 

 operation in important consuming centers. Reduction of funds for 

 this *vork made it necessary to close three of these branch offices, so 

 that only 11 regular market stations were operated during the fiscal 

 year 1922. The list of these offices follows : 



Baltimore. Detroit.^ Omaha.' 



Boston. Kansas City. Pliiladelphia. 



("hicago. Los Angeles. Pittsburgli. 



Cincinnati. Minneapolis. St. Louis. 



Cleveland.' New York. 



All of these offices except Los Angeles were connected with the 

 leased wire system of the bureau. Communication with that city 

 and with most of the 34 field stations in country districts was by 

 commercial wire. 



Temporary field stations were operated during the year 1921 at 

 34 points in principal producing sections, a decrease of 5 stations as 

 compared with the preceding year. In the first six months of 1922, 

 six additional stations were opened at points which did not have 

 service in 1921. The news service had its own representatives in 25 

 different States. Many of the permanent branch offices in terminal 

 markets served mailing lists of producers and shippers in near-by 

 territory. 



In the year ending December 31, 1921, approximately 5,200,000 

 mimeographed reports were issued at market stations and 1,600,00() 

 from temporary field stations. The mailing lists at the market sta- 

 tions and at Washington included 32,600 individuals, while the field 

 stations served nearly 27,000 persons. 



A Weekly Market Review of Fruits ajid Vegetables has been 

 issued regularly from Washington. This review analyzes (.he car- 

 lot shipments of the week and the trend of prices in the various con- 

 suming and producing centers. It is distributed in mimeographed 

 form to approximately 4,000 persons. 



A short week-end review also is prepared and distributed by the 

 department's press service to several press associations, thus reach- 

 ing a large number of weekly journals having many thousands of 

 subscribers. A monthly news story is sent to about 50 periodicals, 

 mostly farm papers, which go to ):>ress late in the month. 



The Weekly Summary of Carlot Shipments of fruits and vege- 

 tables continues to be a valuable adjunct of the Xews Service. This 

 statistical report compares the movement of each product from the 

 respective States of origin with the shipments of the previous week 

 and with the corresponding period of the year before, and shows 

 the total shii:)ments to date this season and last. It is mailed from 

 Washington to a list of 1,100 names. 



In addition, many items of information are distributed by tele- 

 graph and telephone upon request of interested parties who pay the 

 costs of transmission. Information is distributed by radiograph and 



> Discontinued. 



