146 ANNUAL, REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

 EXPANSION OF PRICE-REPORTING WORK. 



The work of the division in reporting farm prices has also been 

 considerably expanded during the year. Not only are prices secured 

 on 68 separate farm products monthly, but a system of reports on 

 what the farmer buys has been established. These were first gathered 

 quarterly but will hereafter be gathered monthly. These cover 69 

 items grouped under eight classes. Plans have also been made to 

 shift all of the work of gathering prices on farm products to the 15th 

 of the month and combine all items in one schedule. This will insure 

 the more prompt publication of those now gathered as of the first 

 of the month and make a better distribution of the office work. 

 Having a monthly record of prices paid as well as received will 

 afford an excellent basis for establishing a series of index numbers 

 on the purchasing power of farmers. Wages of farm labor and 

 information as to supply and demand will be gathered monthly 

 hereafter, the intention being to establish a monthly index of wages 

 and farm labor supply. 



FUNDS INADEQUATE FOR TRUCK-CROP REPORTS. 



During the year approximately 375,000 truck-crop schedules were 

 mailed out and 105 reports were issued covering 18 crops. This 

 work was done largely by two field specialists, who make personal 

 surveys of the most important truck-producing regions east of the 

 Mississippi River, and Texas, and Colorado. The field force is in- 

 adequate to cover the field properly and the time of the agricultural 

 statisticians located in the various States is too fully occupied with 

 other work to devote much time to truck crops. The addition of two 

 more truck-crop specialists would greatly improve the service. 



LARGE VOLUME OF REPORTS FOR PAST YEAR. 



Approximately 50,000 separate and distinct estimates of various 

 kinds, including condition figures, yields, acreages, prices, stocks, 

 etc., have been made for individual States and for the United 

 States during the past year. 



During the 12-month period ending June 30, approximately 

 4,838,000 schedules were dispatched from Washington to the regular 

 and special correspondents covering all phases of agricultural pro- 

 duction and prices. In addition to the schedules mailed from 

 Washington, about an equal number was mailed from the field 

 offices, making a total of over 9,000,000 schedules sent out during the 

 year. 



In order to secure information on the many subjects which are 

 handled by the division it is necessary to maintain a number of 

 separate lists of correspondents, the total number of reporters on 

 all lists of the division now being over 260,000. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN METHODS OF ESTIMATING ACREAGES. 



Real progress has been made during the past year in the develop- 

 ment of new and improved methods of crop forecasting and esti- 

 mating, especially with respect to the estimating of acreage, which 



