BUREAU OF MARKETS AND CROP ESTIMATES. 531 



at the head of the prosrain for early action by the general assembly, imme- 

 diately after it is organized for business. 



2. That the International Institute be instructed to urge upon the adhering 

 governments the taking of decennial censuses of acreages in different crops 

 and numbers of live stock. 



3. That the International Institute be instructed to urge upon the adhering 

 governments greater promplness in completing and transmitting crop reports 

 and statistics to the institute, and that the statistical service of the institute 

 be instructed to publish the reports as soon after the 10th day of each month 

 as may be practicable, listing in the monthly publications of tlie institute the 

 names of the countries v.hich fail to send their reports to the institute in 

 time for publication. 



4. That the International Institute be Instructed to urge upon the adhering 

 governments improved methods of collecting statistics of crop and live-stock 

 production, consumption, imports and exports, stocks, marketing prices, and 

 economic factori? affecting supply. -demand, and prices. 



5. That the International Institute be authorized to employ one or more 

 statisticians to visit the statistical departments of the adhering governments, 

 with a view to studying and reporting upon their statistical organizations, 

 systems, and methods, and suggesting improvements therein, in order that agri- 

 cultural statistics throughout the world may be dependable, timely, and 

 comparable. 



6. That the secretary general of the institute be instructed to prepare and 

 submit to the commission on administration of the general assembly of the 

 institute a statement showing, for each department of the institute, the names 

 of its employees in service on May 1, 1922, their ages, their nationality, the 

 length of time they have been in the service of the institute, their initial sala- 

 ries, dates, and a statement of promotions, nature of their duties, and their 

 education and experience. 



7. That the secretary general of the institute also be instructed to submit 

 10 the commi>-.sion on administration of the general assembly a statement show- 

 ing the gold value of the contributions of each adhering government to the 

 support of the institute for the calendar years 1921 and 1922. 



All of these propositions were adopted with slight modifications. 



FIELD TRAVEL INCREASED. 



The increased funds for travel available for the fiscal year 1922 

 relieved to a considerable extent the handicap under which the a^jri- 

 cultural statisticians in the field had labored during the preceding 

 two years and made it possij^le for them to again establish the per- 

 sonal contacts with field conditions. The funds available for the 

 current fiscal year have been again increased, which should result in 

 a further improvement in the work of the field representatives. 



SEMIMONTHLY CROP NOTES. 



Through the medium of general reports on crop conditions given 

 out semimonthly, an effort is made to meet a demand which exists 

 for crop reports oftener than once a month. The distinction between 

 these so-called " semimonthly crop notes " and the regular monthly 

 crop reports is that while the latter reports arc in actual figures of 

 present conditions, the crop notes describe in general terms the sig- 

 nificant changes taking place. 



INVESTIGATION OF STATISTICAL METHODS BY OUTSIDE EXPERTS. 



During the year, at the invitation of the department, three of the 

 ieading statisticians of the United States — Carroll W. Doten, of 

 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and ex-president of the 

 American Statistical. Association; Willfred I. King, of the National 

 Bureau of Economic Research, of New York City; and Warren M. 

 Persons, of Harvard University — visited Washington and investi- 



