142 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



m six Corn Belt States. Every farmer cooperating in these cattle 

 studies has been furnished with reports covering the performance 

 of his own cattle, together with data showing him good standards of 

 performance in his community. 



COSTS OF HOGS IN 1922. 



During 1922 this division has gathered cost figures on more than 

 a quarter of a million pounds of pork produced in the important hog- 

 growing States of the Mississippi Valley. This is the first work of 

 its kind attempted in which not only cost figures were gathered but 

 day by day breeding herd and feed lot practices and methods re- 

 corded together with the quantities of feed, pasture, labor, and 

 equipment used upon each individual farm under different manage- 

 ment. Tlie results from these differing methods and practices in 

 hog production have been published and give to the hog man just 

 what influence size of litter, differing rations, per cent of death loss^ 

 kind of equipment, age of sows, and other factors have upon costs 

 and profits in hog production. 



The cost of dairy production in the important butter-producing 

 areas of the United States were covered by this division in coopera- 

 tion with the agricultural colleges and experiment stations in New 

 York, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Dair^^ cost studies were also made 

 in California, New Jersey, and Ohio. In addition to studying the 

 relative costs and profits under different feeding and management, 

 special attention and study was given to relative costs and profits 

 in producing milk of different grades. The demand for high-grade 

 sanitary milk by the principal consuming centers has led to setting 

 up certain sanitary standards with an accompanying guarantee in 

 the form of a price bonus for milk reaching these standards. Study 

 was made in New York to determine whether the price margin of 

 high-grade milk was sufficient to cover the additional expense re- 

 quired to produce milk of high grade. Results of this study are 

 being published in bulletin form. 



COSTS ON ALL IMPORTANT 1922 CROPS GATHERED THIS YEAR. 



Crop cost figures for the entire United Sta'tes covering 1922 pro- 

 duction were assembled early this year. These figures gathered an- 

 nually will furnish consumers and producers alike with informa- 

 tion whereby they can measure the spreads between costs and prices 

 and with which the economic condition of the crop-producing farmer 

 can be measured currently. 



Supplementing this widespread cost stud}^, which shows conditions 

 in agricultural production, local studies were made covering wheat 

 production in sections of Oregon. Idaho, and Washington, and a 

 former study into wheat costs in the principal spring and winter 

 wheat sections of the country Avas summed up in a bulletin which is 

 now in the hands of the printer. In the cotton cost work approxi- 

 mately 2,000 farm records covering a period of four j^ears' work have 

 been brought together, analyzed, and a publication prepared for dis- 

 tribution throughout the South giving to cotton growers a description 

 of the field practices and methods resulting in the least cost and the 

 highest net return in cotton production. 



Investigators have been working with the tobacco growers of Ken- 

 tucky and Virginia, the sugar-cane growers of Louisiana, the apple 



