532 ANNUAL. KEPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



gated the methods and work of the crop-reporting service, for the 

 purpose of discovering any faults in the methods of procedure and 

 suggesting possible improvements. 



This committee made a detailed report, and while, in general, 

 it recommended " that the methods of securine: the data should 

 remain substantially unchanged,*' it made certain suggestions for 

 modifications in methods which have been found helpful, but the 

 funds available for use in the division make it impossible to carrj' 

 out all the suggestions offered. 



The committee recognized that the really essential and most dif- 

 ficult problem is that of determining accurately the changes in 

 acreage devoted to different crops and the number of live stock. 

 Experiment had already been made in the making of personal field 

 counts to determine acreage, Avith satisfactory results, and during 

 the 1922 crop season the plan was made one of the regular modes of 

 procedure in estimating acreage. The results indicate that in the 

 Central, Eastern, and Southern States, with few exceptions, it will 

 probably become an excellent check upon acreage changes. 



Other checks upon acreage already in use were continued and de- 

 veloped during the season. These include (1) a study of acreage 

 changes upon a large number of individual farms which report 

 annually the acreage in each crop on their own farms for the cur- 

 rent and previous year, (2) a study of the returns to assessing officers 

 of acres planted to diff^erent crops, (3) records of commercial 

 movements and receipts of agricultural products, and. (4) sj)ecial 

 acreage questionnaires sent to the regular crop reporters of the 

 division. 



COOPERATION IN CROP REPORTING. 



With the exception of two States, the division now has coopera- 

 tive arrangements with every State which maintains a regular crop- 

 reporting service and publishes reports on crops. During the year 

 just closed arrangements were completed with the New York De- 

 partment of Agriculture for a joint service in New York and with 

 the Minnesota Department of Agriculture for a joint service in that 

 State. Cooperative agreements for this work are in effect in 28 

 States. 



ENLARGED LIVE-STOCK REPORTING WORK. 



During the latter part of the year attention was given to the 

 development of plans for an enlarged live-stock reporting service, 

 Congress having granted an increase in the funds of the bureau for 

 this purpose, beginning July 1, 1922. Believing that the best results 

 could be secured by confining the proposed expansion of the live- 

 stock work to certain specific lines, it has been decided to give 

 special attention to developing a service for reporting marketable 

 supplies and movements of meat animals, including cattle, sheep, 

 and swine. Conferences were held in Chicago and Denver which 

 were attended by live-stock producers and others and tentative plans 

 of work drawn up. 



DIVISION OF INFORMATION. 



The -information work of the bureau was under the direction of 

 W. A. Wheeler until February, 1922, when J. Clyde Marquis assumed 

 responsibility for this work. 



